Zolgensma flatlines, but Spinraza isn’t the beneficiary

Just five years ago spinal muscular atrophy was a niche childhood condition with no disease-modifying treatments. Today it is the scene of a fierce battle between three approved drugs, two of which have come under extreme pressure in the US.

And, if last week’s quarterly update for one of them, Biogen’s Spinraza, was disappointing, then today’s numbers from another, Novartis’s Zolgensma, seem little better. A market that has featured clinical missteps, and which has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, appears to be Roche’s for the taking.