Failed Insurance System Curbs Critical Therapy

The challenges of the FDA's drug approval process are well known. In what appeared to be an encouraging departure from the norm, Spinraza—the first and only FDA-approved therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy—gained its approval at twice the usual speed last December, after only five years in clinical trials. But patients continue to wait on the treatment, thanks to a different flaw in our convoluted health insurance system.