New Amgen Osteoporosis Drug Priced at $1,825 a Month

Amgen Inc.’s osteoporosis drug Evenity has been priced at $1,825 a month, or $21,900 a year, according to a media report published Monday. The U.S. list price covers a full 12-month course of injections from the Thousand Oaks pharma company. Other courses of therapy by rivals Radius Health Inc., headquartered in Waltham, Mass., and Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, are 34 to 74 percent more expensive and typically take longer to work, with a timeline of 18 months to two years for treatment, according to the Reuters report. The drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week, and is intended to target osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Evenity is the first drug of its kind to increase bone formation while reducing bone loss, Amgen said. Analysts expect Evenity revenue to be $274 million per year by 2024. Prolia, an osteoporosis drug by Amgen that only stops bone deterioration, is expected to bring in $3.3 billion by 2024, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Shares of Amgen (AMGN) closed Tuesday down $3.15, or 1.65 percent, to $188.05 on the Nasdaq.