When is a Medical Treatment Worth $850,000?

The Value of Luxturna and Gene Therapy Treatments

December 14, 2018: Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium
12:30 - 2 p.m.
Tosteson Medical Education Center, Room 227
260 Longwood Avenue

Luxturna, a gene therapy treatment for a rare form of inherited blindness, was recently approved and administered for the first time to a patient at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in early 2018 at a cost of $850,000. How should patients, physicians, and the US health care system approach a new generation of gene therapies that offer substantial clinical promise and are made available at such price levels?  How do we maximize “health gain” with available resources across the entire population?

Experts:

Jason I. Comander, MD, PhD,
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology
Associate Director
Inherited Retinal Disorders Service
Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc
President
Institute for Clinical and Economic Review

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

The Health Policy and Bioethics Consortia is a monthly series that convenes two international experts from different fields or vantage points to discuss how biomedical innovation and health care delivery are affected by various ethical norms, laws, and regulations. They are organized by the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in collaboration with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Support provided by the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.

Health Policy and Bioethics