The Challenge Of Pricing Amgen's Newly Approved Prolia
Executive Summary
Amgen's first-in-class drug Prolia is burdened with a high price point as it joins a competitive and price-sensitive market for osteoporosis drugs. But Amgen’s decision to value the drug at a premium, effectively sacrificing the first-line treatment market for osteoporosis, to maintain Prolia’s potential in oncology is telling. Certainly, pricing across multiple indications is becoming an increasing challenge for drugmakers, who are under growing scrutiny from payors even as they aim to push drugs to market quickly in one indication before expanding into other arenas. The issue becomes a particularly challenging tight rope to walk when as is true for Prolia one of the indications is in primary care and the other is in a high-priced specialty field such as oncology.