Amgen Set to Make Repatha Available Exclusively at Lower List Price Option

By 2020, Amgen’s evolocumab (Repatha) will be available exclusively at a 60% price reduction from its annual list price of $14,100 to a cost of $5850, according to a company press release.

Initially introduced as an option in October of the last year, the price cut will soon be fully implemented and the original list price option will be discontinued effective December 31, 2019, Amgen said.

Evolocumab, which was approved by the FDA in 2015, is widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol as an adjunct to diet and other low-density lipoprotein-lowering therapies, such as statins. Proprotein covertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors, such as evolocumab, are effective but the high cost of these medications often results in barriers to access.

Although the price cuts have improved access and affordability for many patients, not all Medicare patients have benefited because some Part D plans have not yet transitioned to the lower list price option, according to Murdo Gordon, executive vice president of Global Commercial Operations at Amgen. Discontinuation of the original list price option will help further reduce co-pay costs, Gordon said in a statement.

“Almost half of all Medicare patients who are prescribed Repatha will have an affordable co-pay of less than $50 in 2020, but that means the other half will still face affordability challenges that need to be addressed,” Gordon said. “We are discontinuing the original list price option so that payers and Medicare Part D health plans have clarity and can do their part: cover the lower list price option of Repatha and help every patient prescribed Repatha fill their prescription at an affordable, low fixed dollar co-pay.”

Amgen said it will work with payers, wholesalers, and pharmacies to phase out supply of the original list price national drug costs (NDCs) through the remainder of 2019 and to return any remaining inventory of the discontinued NDCs in 2020, according to the release.

Reference

Amgen to Make Repatha (evolocumab) Available Exclusively At Its Lower List Price Option in 2020 [news release]. Amgen’s website. https://www.amgen.com/media/news-releases/2019/10/amgen-to-make-repatha-evolocumab-available-exclusively-at-its-lower-list-price-option-in-2020/. Accessed October 24, 2019.