Roche aims to 'underwhelm' on SMA drug price to challenge rivals

ZURICH/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche plans to price its oral spinal muscular atrophy drug (SMA) risdiplam aggressively to challenge two of the world's most expensive medicines, Biogen's Spinraza and Novartis's gene therapy Zolgensma. Spinraza's list price is $750,000 in the first year, and $375,000 thereafter, while Novartis's gene therapy for the genetic muscle wasting disease lists at $2.1 million, making it the drug industry's most expensive one-time treatment...