Amgen's cholesterol drug Repatha proved effective at lowering the risk of heart attacks, strokes and death in patients with heart disease in a recent clinical trial, reports Reuters.
When reporting preliminary results of the 27,500-patient study, Amgen said no new safety concerns manifested during the study. Repatha showed similar effects on mental function as the placebo, quelling concerns that the medication could impair cognition in some patients, according to the report.
"These results show unequivocally the connection between lowering LDL cholesterol with Repatha and cardiovascular risk reduction, even in a population already treated with optimized statin therapy," Sean Harper, research chief of Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen said in a statement.
Payers and pharmacy benefit managers have rejected about 75 percent of prescriptions written for Repatha, which has a list price of almost $14,000 a year. Amgen hopes the new data will satisfy the insurers and PBMs, who've been hesitant to cover the costly medication without concrete evidence it actually reduces the risk of heart disease and deaths, according to the report.
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