STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a Vera kidney drug approval, a U.K. Enhertu pricing deal, and more
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- The FDA approved Trutakna, Vera Therapeutics' new drug for IgA nephropathy, a condition in which immune antibodies build up in the kidneys.
- Vera Therapeutics will charge $425,000 annually for Trutakna before customary insurance discounts and rebates.
- Trutakna is one of several drugs now entering or nearing the market for IgA nephropathy.
- U.K. officials are nearing a drug-pricing deal with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to provide access to Enhertu, a breast cancer antibody-drug conjugate shown to extend survival by around six months.
- The pending deal would allow certain women in England and Wales to receive Enhertu, which is widely available elsewhere but was previously deemed not cost-effective by the U.K.'s drug-pricing regulator.
- The U.K. changed some of its drug-pricing metrics as part of a trade deal with the Trump administration, which preceded the new Enhertu agreement.
Why it matters: Trutakna enters a competitive IgA nephropathy market where several drugs are already approaching launch, with Vera's $425,000 list price as the immediate test of payer uptake. In England and Wales, the pending Enhertu deal reverses a prior cost-effectiveness rejection after the U.K. revised its pricing metrics under a trade deal with the Trump administration.
