This summer, a drug called Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel) became the third chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy approved by the FDA. CAR-T therapies, which use a patient's genetically modified immune cells to target and fight cancer cells, are a cutting-edge type of treatment that comes with eye-popping price tags, ranging from $373,000 to $475,000. However, a new report from OptumRx highlights an "industry trend to watch" that could eventually provide some relief to payers worried about how to finance CAR-T treatments, AIS Health reported.
Currently, CAR-T therapies' high cost is at least in part attributable to the "labor-intensive and time-consuming" manufacturing process for such drugs, stated the UnitedHealth Group-owned PBM's Drug Pipeline Insights Report for the third quarter of 2020. Essentially, T-cells are taken from a patient, treated and multiplied in a lab, and reinfused into the same patient — a completely personalized process known as autologous therapy.
When asked how much the allogeneic process could reduce the manufacturing cost of CAR-T therapies, Bill Dreitlein, senior director of pipeline and drug surveillance at OptumRx, cited a 2019 study.
"Per the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy, the cost to manufacture CAR-T using current methods is at $95,780 per dose," he says via email. "That study also calculates the production cost using the new process would be only $4,460 per dose — over 95% lower."
However, because manufacturing costs are only one part of the drug-pricing equation, the new allogeneic process may not actually lower CAR-T prices that dramatically, the report noted.
Tecartus' list price is $373,000, and the wholesale acquisition costs of the other CAR-T therapies, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), are $373,000 and $475,000 respectively, per the OptumRx report. As of Oct. 1, 2019, CMS agreed to cover CAR-T therapies for qualifying Medicare beneficiaries, but private payers generally reimburse providers for CAR-T treatment on a case-by-case basis, industry experts previously told AIS Health.
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