RE:REPATHAGreat news from Amgen for Repatha showing a profound reduction of MACE with their anti-PCSK9 antibody therapy for dramatically lowering LDL. Full story
here.
Now the real question is will payer groups/insurers actually pay for this expensive therapy for widespread use? For those who follow Esperion (ESPR), the ping pong behavior of their share price continues to move every time a PCSK9 therapy news story breaks. Sometimes ESPR goes up, sometime down. For some strange reason, even though the Fourier study validated the LDL hypothesis (i.e. aggressive LDL lowering reduces MACE), AND Esperion's ETC-1002 offers an orally available LDL-lowering statin alternative (ATP-citrate lysase inhibitor), ESPR stock is hit hard today. Go figure?
Landmark Outcomes Study Shows That Repatha® (Evolocumab) Decreases LDL-C To Unprecedented Low Levels And Reduces Risk Of Cardiovascular Events With No New Safety Issues
Repatha Significantly Reduces Risk of Hard Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events by 20 Percent
Risks of Heart Attack, Stroke and Coronary Revascularization Were Nominally Reduced by 27 Percent, 21 Percent and 22 Percent, Respectively
Patients in Study had History of Heart Attack, Stroke or Symptomatic Peripheral Arterial Disease and Were Treated With Optimized Statin Therapy
Amgen to Offer Innovative Refund Contracts in the U.S. Detailed Results Simultaneously Published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Presented at the American College of Cardiology 66th Annual Scientific Session
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., March 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced that the 27,564-patient Repatha® (evolocumab) cardiovascular outcomes study, FOURIER, established for the first time that maximally reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels with Repatha, beyond what is possible with the current best therapy alone, leads to a further reduction in major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and coronary revascularizations.