December 14, 2000
QLT Sees Reibursement Issues Resolved In
2001 First Half
By TAMSIN CARLISLE
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
VANCOUVER -- QLT Inc. (QLTI) expects physician reimbursement
issues that have held back demand for its anti-blindness drug Visudyne to
be resolved during the first half of next year.
Julia Levy, the company's president and chief executive, told Dow Jones
that several European countries are making progress toward agreements
on how ophthalmologists using Visudyne as part of a recently approved
laser treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will be
reimbursed for the procedure. Visudyne therapy is the only effective
treatment currently approved for AMD, an eye disease that is the leading
cause of blindness in people over 50 years old.
Levy said Germany's government has agreed to start reimbursement for the
procedure in February. France requires just one more committee to make
a recommendation on reimbursement, and Italy is developing a more
efficient process to replace its current system of reviewing cases
individually before reimbursing ophalmologists for Visudyne treatment.
QLT said in a news release Thursday that lack of reimbursement in some
European countries and the U.S. would translate into lower fourth-quarter
demand for Visudyne than previously expected and that it expected to miss
fourthy-quarter sales estimates. It said the U.S. Health Care Financing
Administration recently established a new procedure code and payment
levels for Visudyne treatment that will take effect Jan. 1, so that that most
of the outstanding uncertainty about reimbursement concerns European
jurisdictions.
Levy said European governments delayed establishing reimbursement
schedules for the new ophthalmological procedure because, in Europe,
physicians are reimbursed from hospital budgets for the cost of procedures
they perform. Since AMD was previously untreatable, hospitals hadn't
made any budget provisions for the disease. However, continued
bureaucratic foot-dragging is likely to provoke public outrage because
patients waiting for Visudyne treatment stand to lose their vision, Levy
said.
On Nasdaq, shares of QLT fell 31% to 28 1/16 on about 13.1 million
shares.
Levy said the stock plunge makes QLT "vulnerable" to opportunistic
takeover bids but that she would expect the company's Swiss partner,
Novartis AG (NVS), to step in as a white knight to fend off a hostile offer. |
