Ionis Shares Pop As Aetna Adds Spinraza To Precertification List

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc IONS shares were trading up 6.61 percent Tuesday on news that Aetna Inc AET added Spinraza — a drug developed by Ionis and licensed by Biogen Inc BIIB — to its precertification list.

However, an Aetna representative told Benzinga the “appearance on this list does not indicate one way or the other what the clinical policy will be.”

Related Article: Why Spinraza Is The Only Exciting Thing About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

“As with all new FDA-approved products, we will conduct a full clinical review of Spinraza (nusinersen) to determine our clinical coverage policy,” the spokesperson said. “We have not yet completed this review.”

In October, Benzinga received a similar response from Aetna regarding Sarepta Therapeutics Inc SRPT’s Exondys 51, whose coverage was confirmed two months later.

Ionis shares traded around $49.95 at time of publication.