|
 Praluent, made by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Entresto
from Novartis are both treatments that represent significant
advances for millions of patients at risk of serious heart problems.
But their positioning in the marketplace was always likely to be
contentious since they offer more effective alternatives to very
cheap, off-patent drugs.
The manufacturers have taken an ambitious view on pricing, arguing
that the clear medical benefits of their products and their ability
to keep patients out of expensive hospital beds, make them
cost-effective choices for healthcare providers.
The high prices have also prompted rising sales forecasts, but they
may provoke clashes with the providers.
Sanofi and Regeneron, which won U.S. approval on Friday for Praluent
to treat stubbornly high cholesterol, said the injection would cost
$14,600 a year, well above the roughly $10,000 investors had
expected.
Tim Race of Deutsche Bank said the high official price would allow
the companies to offer generous rebates in what is expected to be a
competitive market, resulting in a net price that could be
discounted by 30-50 percent over time.
Sanofi and Regeneron are competing against Amgen's Repatha, another
so-called PCSK9 inhibitor, which is still awaiting a green light in
the United States, although it was approved last week in Europe.
Still, setting a high price is a gamble as it could drive healthcare
providers to put restrictions on Praluent's use, according to Joseph
Schwartz of Leerink, who had been modeling a below-consensus price
of about just $5,000.
On July 7, Novartis set a price of $4,560 a year for its new heart
failure pill Entresto, nearly 50 percent higher than many analysts
had expected.
Novartis does not face direct competition to Entresto but the
company has said it will offer discount deals, including basing the
amount paid on patients' clinical outcomes.
[to top of second column] |
Big U.S. pharmacy benefit managers such as Express Scripts and CVS
Health, who negotiate drug prices for health plan members, have
already warned that the cost of new heart drugs - particularly
PCSK9s - will strain budgets.
Leading heart doctors, while welcoming the arrival of novel weapons
to keep heart troubles at bay, have also cited price as a potential
problem.
The new heart drugs cost nowhere near as much as many modern cancer
drugs, often priced at more than $100,000, but their impact on
budgets will be considerable since they are designed for lifetime
use.
Praluent and Amgen's Repatha are expected to generate global annual
sales of more than $2 billion each by 2020, according to consensus
forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Cortellis.
Entresto is forecast to sell nearly $5 billion by the same date, a
figure that has been climbing since the price was set.
(Editing by David Clarke)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
