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Good afternoon, readers.

Since its introduction in May, Novartis’s gene therapy medication, Zolgensma, has been the subject of plenty of controversy. For one thing, it’s the world’s most expensive drug by list price, coming in at a cool $2.1 million before discounts and rebates. And last August, a data manipulation scandal over the therapy, which was originally produced by AveXis, a biotech that Novartis snatched up in 2018, drew rebukes from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—though the therapy has remained on the market.

But the road bumps haven’t dampened sales of Zolgensma, the first-ever gene therapy approved to treat a devastating rare disease called spinal muscular atrophy. The muscle-wasting disorder typically affects children, and some forms of the disease usually lead to death before a child reaches his or her second birthday. And if the promise of treatment for the disease isn’t enough, the drug requires just a single dose, delivered via infusion, as a lasting cure for spinal muscular atrophy.

The hope for a forever cure appears to be driving Zolgensma’s success, high price and all. Novartis announced this week that the therapy brought in $186 million in sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 (and it’s only been on the market since late May). Major private insurers, as well as government programs like Medicaid, have been willing to cover the drug for most patients with the condition, according to Novartis.

This could well prove a critical test case in the gene therapy world. Drug manufacturers are betting that steep prices won’t matter (or, at least, won’t matter much) if they can prove that a therapy will prevent more drastic (and expensive) health conditions down the line, or save lives. Zolgensma’s early success may bolster that argument.

Zolgensma’s primary competitors are Biogen’s Spinraza and an experimental treatment from Roche called risdiplam, which is expected to be approved by May. Both of those treatments have significantly different formulations and delivery methods than Zolgensma.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy

DIGITAL HEALTH

Yale is testing virtual reality group therapy sessions for cancer patients. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine want to see if virtual reality technology can help cancer patients in need of counseling and support groups. They're testing VR-based chat rooms so patients can build a support community and get help dealing with their anxiety and stress levels without requiring more energy-draining trips outside to their week. (Becker's Hospital Review)

INDICATIONS

The trouble with getting a coronavirus vaccine to market. My colleague Naomi Elegant delves into the challenges of getting a coronavirus vaccine to market—including the various regulatory issues, and testing on animals and humans. Multiple drug companies (including pharma giant Johnson & Johnson) have been playing up their efforts to develop a vaccine, but as we learned from the 2014 Ebola outbreak, those aspirations often brush up against the reality of the development process. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have said that they've developed an experimental coronavirus vaccine that modifies an existing flu vaccine. (Fortune)

THE BIG PICTURE

CVS's new program to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for diabetes drugs highlights a persistent health care problem. Drug chain CVS (which now encompasses insurer Aetna) has a new plan to nix out-of-pocket spending for diabetes drugs. A new service for employer health plans and other insurance providers would allow companies to shepherd patients to lower-cost options such as generic diabetes treatments. In the past few years, the rising cost of insulin and other diabetes drugs has fueled a spike in diabetes-related health care spending.

WHO to mull whether the coronavirus outbreak is a global health emergency. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially declined to declare the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency. Now, the agency is reconsidering its decision, and will meet on Thursday to think over its options as the virus spreads to multiple countries. (Reuters)