Capricor Therapeutics Sues Nippon Shinyaku and NS Pharma Over Pricing Dispute on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Therapy Deramiocel

U.S. subsidiary NS Pharma in a New Jersey state court on May 8, 2026. The complaint accuses the companies of failing to follow through on marketing plans for a Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment and refusing to fix a pricing glitch discovered in their exclusive distribution agreement.

A key issue is a “fatal flaw” in a pricing formula that would make it “economically impracticable” for the therapy to reach patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, according to the lawsuit. Health care providers would get reimbursed less than they would pay to cover the cost of acquiring and administering the medicine, which is called deramiocel.

Nippon Shinyaku and NS Pharma disclosed the pricing problem in March 2025.

U.S. buyer under the exclusive distribution agreement.

STAT reported the details of the lawsuit on May 8, 2026. Ed Silverman, a senior writer and Pharmalot columnist at STAT, wrote the article published that day. The publication noted that the lawsuit describes the flaw as rendering patient access unworkable across major insurance types.

The suit states that as the arrangement stands, providers would face losses on every administration of deramiocel. Capricor Therapeutics maintains the partners have not addressed the defect despite having months to do so since the March 2025 disclosure.