Big on promise, big on cost: Which patients warrant this cholesterol-busting wonder drug?
7th August 2019
Meet the new lipid-lowering agents: monoclonal antibodies that promise to shrink LDL to levels lower than even the strongest statin could achieve.
PCSK9 inhibitors have captured attention for their potential to cut stroke and myocardial infarction risk, as well as for their substantial cost, an estimated $8000 per year.
In Australia, just one of the two available in the class, evolocumab (Repatha, Amgen), is subsidised by the PBS and then only for patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia.
Last year the federal Department of