PTC Therapeutics Inc. said early Monday that it plans to launch the Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Emflaza at a price of $35,000 a year and within the coming weeks. The price tag comes in below the controversial $89,000-a-year price set by Emflaza’s previous owner, privately-held Marathon Pharmaceuticals, which faced so much backlash on the drug’s price tag that it delayed Emflaza’s launch. The price tag was especially controversial because the drug is part of a class of corticosteroids used for DMD in other parts of the world and available as cheaply as $1,000 a year. PTC Therapeutics said it believes the new price is “sustainable” and “balances providing access to all eligible patient in the United States in an ultra-orphan population while maintaining sufficient infrastructure and programs, including continued investment in Duchenne,” said Chief Executive Officer Stuart Peltz, according to the FactSet earnings call transcript. “The factors in our decision include a consideration of the resources required to provide access to Emflaza for a small patient population to improve the standard of care and further the Duchenne community’s educational need while enabling continual investment in therapies for rare diseases and providing financial return for our shareholders.” PTC Therapeutics announced its plan to buy Emflaza in mid-March for about $75 million in cash and $65 million in PTC common stock. But it’s possible the new, lower price tag may still prove controversial. “The question is how low is low enough, especially when patients (and now politicians, given all the noise) know that the drug is available overseas for $1,000/year?” RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis said in March. PTC Therapeutics shares were not yet active in pre-market trade on Monday. Shares have declined 7.5% over the last three months, compared with a 4.6% rise in the S&P 500 . An earlier version of this report said Emflaza would launch in the coming week, due to an error in the earnings call’s FactSet transcript.
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