Takeda Inks Risk-Sharing Deal with Health Plan Over Lung Cancer Drug Effectiveness

Takeda Pharmaceutical has signed a risk-sharing agreement with Point32Health, the second-largest health plan in New England, that has Takeda returning a portion of the cost of its lung cancer drug Alunbrig in circumstances when it doesn’t work.

The therapy is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is approved for adult patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) metastatic nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The agreement will make Alunbrig available to Point32Health’s more than 2 million members “with Takeda standing behind the medicine with a unique outcomes-based structure,” the companies said.

The agreement is among the first risk-sharing contracts in oncology and the very first in ALK+NSCLC.