Amgen Inc. will distribute its cholesterol drug Repatha at a 60 percent lower list price as of Dec. 31, the Thousand Oaks company announced on Thursday. The biotech giant opted for a new price per year of $5,850; the drug will no longer be available at its original list price of more than $14,000 a year. The new price will reduce out-of-pocket costs to Medicare patients. “Some Medicare Part D plans have not transitioned to the lower list price option of Repatha. 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 that the other half will still face affordability challenges that need to be addressed,” Murdo Gordon, executive vice president of global commercial operations at Amgen, said in a statement. “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 to help every patient prescribed Repatha fill their prescription at an affordable, low fixed-dollar co-pay,” Gordon added. The company will work with payers, wholesalers and pharmacies to phase out supply of the original list price national drug codes through the end of this year. Shares of Amgen (AMGN) closed Thursday down 26 cents, or a fraction of a percent, to $203.06 on the Nasdaq.
