Look back at pharma news in week to February 15

Among the most interesting news last week on pricing, Regeneron and Sanofi slashed the cost of their PCSK9 inhibitor cholesterol lowerer Praluent in the USA. Research news included disappointing Phase III results for Gilead Sciences with its NASH candidate selonsertib. There was bad news for GlaxoSmithKline when Mylan finally launched Wixela Inhub, a generic copy of its top-selling asthma drug Advair Diskus in the all important US market. And on the deal-making front, Belgium’s UCB partnered with the Epilepsy Society to better understand diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Regeneron and Sanofi play follow the leader on Praluent pricing

Regeneron and Sanofi’s new US list price for their cholesterol-lowering injection Praluent is a curiously familiar number: $5,850, the same level Amgen set last October for its rival product Repatha. The lower price for Praluent should allow Medicare part D plans and commercial insurers to place the drug on non-speciality formulary tiers and reduce patients’ out-of-pocket costs, wrote Jonathan Gardener on Vantage, the editorial arm of the Evaluate group