August 29, 2019
Dear members of the SMA community,
As part of our promise and commitment to keep the Canadian SMA community apprised of important milestones regarding SPINRAZA™, we are sharing an update on recent developments regarding reimbursement in the province of New Brunswick.
Effective August 26, 2019, the Government of New Brunswick has expanded access to SPINRAZA™ as part of the NB Drug Plans Formulary Update.
Patients in New Brunswick will now be eligible for reimbursement of SPINRAZA™ if the following criteria are met:
– Genetic documentation of 5q SMA homozygous gene deletion, homozygous mutation,
or compound heterozygous mutation; and
– Patient is not requiring permanent invasive ventilation; and
– Patient who:
• is pre-symptomatic with genetic documentation of two or three copies of the survival motor
neuron 2 (SMN2) gene, or
• has had disease duration less than 6 months, two copies of the SMN2 gene, and symptom onset after the first week of birth and on or before 7 months of age, or
• is under the age of 18 with symptom onset after 6 months of age.
Requests for patients who do not meet the above criteria may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Biogen Canada welcomes this news from the New Brunswick government. It is a major milestone for the SMA community which nowallows patients who have been diagnosed with this rare condition to be eligible for reimbursement. Treatment access for pre-symptomatic SMA patients is a critical step forward towards the implementation of a Maritime newborn screening program.
New Brunswick now joins Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Yukon, and Saskatchewan to provide expanded accessto SPINRAZA™. This news is an opportunity for the other Atlantic provinces to follow quickly so that all Maritime SMA patients have equal access.
Biogen believes that all SMA patients should have broad access and we will continue to work with all jurisdictions until this is achieved in Canada.
Sincerely,
Biogen Canada
