Amgen's cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by more than 20 percent in patients with heart disease, according to new data presented Friday at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in Washington, D.C.
Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers are hesitant to pay for Repatha — which costs $14,000 per year — and other competing cholesterol drugs since statins can be used to treat high cholesterol for as low as $100 per year, reports Reuters. At present, they reject about three-fourths of the prescriptions written for these drugs.
However, Amgen's new data reveals the costly medications could potentially offer a new clinical benefit deemed worthy of coverage from payers and PBMs, according to the report.
The data showed Repatha reduced the combine risk of heart attacks, stroke and heart-related death by 20 percent, compared to patients taking a placebo who were already being treated with statins, like Pfizer's Lipitor. After two years, patients taking Repatha demonstrated a risk reduction of 33 percent, according to the report.
Steve Miller, CMO of Express Scripts — one of the largest PBMs in the country — said he expected physicians to start writing more prescriptions for the drug as soon as Monday, reports Reuters. "We are going to have to respond to that," Mr. Miller said.
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