New York Reviewing Vertex’s Drug Over Medicaid Spending Cap Concerns

A New York drug review board will convene April 26 to review Vertex’s cystic fibrosis treatment Orkambi (lumacaftor/ivacaftor), which the state identified as contributing to overages on the state’s Medicaid drug spending cap.

The Orkambi review is the first since the state passed a law last year putting a cap on Medicaid spending.

The combination drug, approved by the FDA in 2015, costs $259,000 per patient per year.