Some Blue Cross Blue Shield companies now cover two newly approved sickle cell gene therapies, which cost about $2 million and $3 million per dose.
Synergie Medication Collective is an organization composed of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Elevance Health, nine independent BCBS plans and a few other companies. Of the seven cell and gene therapies Synergie prefers, sickle cell treatments Casgevy and Lyfgenia round out the list.
The two drugs are the nation's first approved CRISPR gene therapies for sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder affecting about 100,000 Americans. Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) costs $2.2 million, and Lyfgenia is $3.1 million.