There are as many rare disease patients as there are diabetics, Cigna’s Steve Miller notes, arguing that exorbitant prices for each treatment could drive counterproductive categorical exclusions by payers.

Plus: Korean firms working on repurposed drug which showed far higher efficacy than remdesivir and chloroquine in pre-clinical tests

Payer concessions to ensure access to drugs during the COVID-19 outbreak offer a benefit to patients and biopharma. But the costs involved could intensify future efforts to manage drug spending.

Getting doctors to prescribe lower cost biologics has become less of a challenge as additional products reach the market in the US, according to panelists at the World Biosimilar Congress.