Financial innovation needed to advance gene therapy

It has taken decades for scientists to devise safe and effective methods to use viruses to smuggle genes into cells where they can be integrated into DNA to treat or cure human diseases. To make these therapies broadly accessible to patients in the U.S., the biopharma industry must overcome a different set of challenges: smuggling seven-figure price tags past barriers that payers have erected to protect against financial shocks, and devising strategies to integrate payments for one-time therapies into reimbursement systems that have evolved to handle recurring expenses.

These challenges are exacerbated by uncertainties about the effectiveness and durability of gene therapies that could take years or decades to resolve...