Upcoming CMS decisions to minimally impact current cancer CAR-T therapies - analyst

Rubius Therapeutics

03/07/2019 13:28

** Three upcoming decisions from the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the coverage and reimbursement
for expensive CAR-T cancer therapies are expected to have
minimal impact on the existing CAR-T treatments, Guggenheim says
    ** Says hurdles linked to the coverage and reimbursement of
these treatments under programs like Medicare have been a
limiting factor for their initial uptake post-approval
    ** In April, CMS said it would increase coverage for CAR-T
cell therapies administered at certain large hospitals, and that
it was considering other ways to pay more for the treatments
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2251N9
    ** It is likely that CMS may delay making any new major
inpatient decisions until next year's meeting to take effect in
2021 - Guggenheim 
    ** Brokerage says existing and soon-to-be-approved
treatments including Gilead Sciences Inc's  GILD.O  Yescarta,
Novartis AG's  NOVN.S  Kymriah and bluebird bio Inc  BLUE.O  and
Celgene Corp's  CELG.O  bb2121, are expected to be impacted
minimally in the near-term and will continue to face
reimbursement challenges    
    ** The decisions bode well for next-generation,
off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies such as those from Allogene
Therapeutics  ALLO.O , Fate Therapeutics  FATE.O  and Rubius
Therapeutics  RUBY.O , brokerage says

 (Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru)
 ((Reuters Messaging:
manojna.kalyani.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))