WellPoint’s affiliated Health Plans’s decision to cover Treanda followed the FDA’s decision to grant it orphan drug status for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. WellPoint has a clinical guideline in place for ‘orphan’ drug use. WellPoint considers these drugs medically necessary when the drugs receive FDA marketing approval and the approval is made publicly available.
Sam Nussbaum, executive vice president and chief medical officer of WellPoint, said: “This medication can have a significant impact on our members with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Many of these members have received other treatment options without sustained success; the FDA’s approval of this new treatment gives these members another chance to control their blood cancer.”