The US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) announced a new drug on June 9 that would lower the body's bad cholesterol. According to Fox News, the officials are still however questioning who could take it in and they are still torn on just approving it from the data that is available as of now.
The drug is called Repatha by the pharmaceutical company Amgen and the FDA gave a review about it, as they consider the said drug for approval. It is an injectable cholesterol-lowering drug that could be the answer to America's problem when it comes to heart disease. It is also said to work differently from older and statin drugs. Base on the review given by FDA, this new drug is revolutionary and the first of its kind that is advance in lowering bad or LDL cholesterol that was created in more than 2 decades. Analysts are predicting billions of sales, as soon as it gets approved and become available for the public to consume.
USA Today said that even though the FDA doesn't normally look at the price tag of drugs before approving them, there are some news saying that if its tentative cost is around $10,000 a year to be used by some patients for the rest of their lives, then it could mean that healthcare price would be affected that it would lead to higher premiums. Unlike statins, patients would have to inject this drug twice or 4 times a month. It is kind of like insulin for diabetics, only this one is for those who have high cholesterol.
The panelists are still deliberating its condition to be approved because some have found facts that would lead it to increase the risk of diabetes. Reuters said that although there are no data, as to how much risk could be involved here, but that information has certainly added up for the panel to investigate more on the drug.
