The Economics of Disposability
I’m halfway through a spreadsheet of gene therapy trial data—Zolgensma, hemophilia, spinal muscular atrophy protocols, cost analyses from three biotech firms, and a patient forum thread that’s been updating since 2018—when I notice something that makes the whole thing click into place.
Zolgensma costs $2.125 million per treatment. One dose. One person. That’s what a hospital spends on insulin for 300 diabetics that year. Nobody’s upset about the comparison. That’s just… the number. The way prices are numbers. The way oxygen has a cost.