On Thursday, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it has approved a new drug ‘Repatha’ to treat patients with high cholesterol. Now, the prices of cholesterol-lowering drugs have become a matter for debate.

According to Amgen, its new drug Repatha will be launched soon. Amgen is not the only biopharmaceutical company which launched a cholesterol-lowering medicine as Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi announced the launch of their new drug, Praluent, earlier. The new drug class has the potential to give good results, but the problem is their prices and target population.

The target population is large and the prices of the drugs are too rich for some patients. Both the drugs, Repatha and Praluent, can cost over $14,000 a year. The companies are familiar with the problem, and have signaled to work with payers.

According to the FDA, familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited disease, which causes high levels of LDL cholesterol. The high level in the blood is linked to cardiovascular disease, which kills a number of people in the US. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 600,000 individuals die due to heart diseases in the US.

While talking about the newly approved Repatha drug, John Jenkins, director of the Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the medicine is an another option for people who have high levels of LDL cholesterol.

He said, “Cardiovascular disease is a serious threat to the health of Americans, and the FDA is committed to facilitating the development and approval of effective and safe drugs to address this important public health problem”.