Sanofi, Amgen cholesterol drugs win UK backing after price cuts

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Two rival cholesterol-lowering injections from Sanofi (LSE: 0O59.L - news) and Amgen (Xetra: 867900 - news) have been recommended by Britain's healthcare cost watchdog after the manufacturers offered special discounts to the country's state-run health service.

Sanofi's Praluent, which was developed with Regeneron , and Amgen's Repatha are both so-called PCSK9 medicines that work in a different way to existing cholesterol fighters such as statins.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE (Milan: NICE.MI - news) ) said in draft guidance on Friday that both drugs could be considered for use by people whose cholesterol is still not under control despite trying other treatments.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) stressed that the medicines would only be cost-effective with the promised discounts.

Both drugs cost more than 4,000 pounds ($5,780) per patient a year in Britain. That is already a lot less than their U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . list price of around $14,000, but Sanofi and Amgen have committed to discount the British price by a further undisclosed amount for the UK National Health Service.

While Praluent and Repatha are both viewed by analysts as eventual multi-billion-dollar-a-year sellers, demand for the medicines in markets worldwide so far has proved disappointing. ($1 = 0.6921 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Adrian Croft)