Making Genetic Therapies Affordable and Accessible
Making Genetic Therapies Affordable and Accessible
While genetic therapies hold the promise of targeted treatments that address the underlying causes of diseases, their staggering cost may keep them out of reach for those who need them most.
At the Innovative Genomics Institute, our mission is to develop genetic therapies that are affordable and accessible to all.
Starting in Winter 2021, IGI’s Public Impact team, led by Melinda Kliegman, assembled a task force of 30 experts charged with first exploring key drivers of high prices and proposing alternative approaches to developing and deploying a genetic therapy that could reach more patients.
Key Findings
- Pricing: We put forward a dynamic cost-plus model for pricing new genetic therapies that could lead to a sticker price that is 10x less than genetic therapies on the market.
- Organization and Funding Models: Besides for-profit corporations (C-corps), non-profit medical research organizations and public benefit corporations (B-corps) offer alternative organizational structures that could, in theory, reduce the sticker price. For these to be successful lower-cost capital (requiring a lower rate of returns) is needed to control costs.
- Intellectual property: Academic technology transfer offices (TTOs) can play a significant role in improving affordability and access via licenses provisions and requiring access plans.
- Manufacturing: Manufacturing a genetic therapy to stringent regulatory standards is a key driver of cost. We discuss various innovations, point-of-care manufacturing and regulatory streamlining that could lower prices while maintaining safety and efficacy.
