July 21st, 2015: Pharmaceutical giant, Amgen, was awarded a stunning approval from the European Commission for Repatha, a breakthrough cholesterol-lowering drug as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The drug will provide a new treatment option for people who’ve been diagnosed with high cholesterol as a result of poor diet and sedentary lifestyle or from having a rare genetic disorder like familial hypercholesterolemia. Thus far in clinical trials, Repatha has been shown to reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol when added as an adjudicative therapy to an overall treatment plan.
As promising as this sounds reliable data is lacking about the safety and long-term effects of Repatha which is an injectable drug. Its estimated cost is thought to be approximately $3,750 per year in Europe. Still, because Repatha is a breakthrough treatment, (unlike previous standard medications that have been used for more than 20 years to lower bad cholesterol) the FDA is considering it for approval in the United States.
As word has spread, however, some patient rights advocates, providers, and health insurers are crying foul—adamantly objecting to the high cost of blockbuster drugs that target common medical conditions. Key opinion leaders and analysts in the life science field predict this new class of drug could cost upwards of $10,000 or more per patient in the United States as demand is high.
Thus far, Amgen Inc., based in Thousand Oaks, California has not answered requests to provide specific pricing information. The company’s shares have seen some nice increases its overall shares in trading have risen sharply at 37 percent since 2014.
So what’s the answer? Buy stock in Amgen and move to Europe!
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Featured image credited to Flickr.com.
