Novartis Makes New MS Drug Cheaper as Price Controversy Rages

Novartis AG undercut the price on its established multiple sclerosis treatment with a pill to be introduced next week, a sign that change may be afoot in one of the areas of medicine most plagued by cost controversy.

The drug, Mayzent, will cost about $88,500 a year in the U.S. That’s about 7.4 percent less than Novartis’s Gilenya, the nearly decade-old pill that Mayzent is meant to replace at least in part. It’s the second recent case of a new multiple sclerosis medicine being priced below older therapies: Roche Holding AG introduced Ocrevus in 2017 at a 25 percent discount ...