(Adds Medicine Co CEO comment on price)
By Deena Beasley and Caroline Humer
March 17 (Reuters) - Amgen Inc sells its cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha at a discount of about 30 percent to its U.S. list price of $14,000 a year, but the largest pharmacy benefit managers say they want lower prices after new data suggested more patients should be treated with the drug.
Amgen, which on Friday presented data showing for the first time that Repatha cuts the risk of heart attack and stroke , said in a related presentation for investors that it is netting between $7,700 to $11,200 per annual treatment after discounts and rebates and believes those prices represent good value.
Sean Harper, head of research and development at Amgen, told Reuters that current industry discounts average 30 percent to 35 percent.
"I think responsibly, if the number you are treating goes up and you are trying to recoup the cost of (developing) the drug ... one would hope that the price would go down," said Troyen Brennan, chief medical officer at CVS Health Corp, the No. 2 manager of drug benefit plans for U.S. employers and insurers.
He expects the new data to widen eligibility for the treatment from roughly 1 million to at least 4 million Americans.
Steve Miller, CMO at Express Scripts, the nation's largest pharmacy benefit manager, told Reuters he is "really focused on value-based pricing" and is "hopeful for additional improvements" in contract terms. Conversations about CVS's contracts for Amgen’s drug and competitor Praluent, which is sold by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA , are under way, he said.
Amgen said it plans to offer additional contracting options, including refunding the cost of the drug for patients who suffer a heart attack or stroke, but emphasized that it believes current prices are fair.
"In fact, they may even be below the value-based range for the types of patients getting access now," said Joshua Ofman, senior vice president of global value, access and policy at Amgen. "We want to engage payers in risk-sharing contracts. If the drug does not perform, net prices will go down. But if the drug performs as we expect, they will not."
Repatha, approved by regulators in 2015, belongs to a class of injected antibody drugs that target PCSK9, a protein that maintains "bad" LDL cholesterol in the blood. It is aimed at the millions of people who don't benefit from statins.
Statin pills, like Pfizer Inc's Lipitor, work very differently, blocking the liver's production of LDL cholesterol, and cost only about $100 per year. Around one in four Americans age 45 and older is taking a statin.