They sounded like three deadly strikes.
The patient had a dangerously high level of LDL cholesterol, a high risk for heart disease and an intolerance for the most common cholesterol-fighting medication. Dr. William Averill, a Torrance cardiologist, thought he had a solution: Praluent, a cholesterol-lowering drug from pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Sanofi that had just been approved by the FDA as a treatment for people who didn’t benefit from the standard cholesterol treatment.
The only problem? The drug’s $14,600-a-year sticker-shocker price — 140 times more expensive than generic statins that typically cost about $100 a year.
