HOUSE OVERSIGHT 025890 Trending on LinkedIn Donald Trump And The Decline Of American Character--A Cautionary Tale "We don't want the noise about these drugs to be price," says Leonard Schleifer, the chief executive and founder of Regeneron. "We have to make sure that people get access to the drug for a fair price if they're insured, for free if they're not insured, or at a discount if they're under-insured." Praluent's price is 46% higher than that forecast by Evercore ISI, an investment bank, and it is being approved for a larger group of patients than many Wall Street analysts expected following a meeting convened by the FDA to analyze the data on the drug. Some doctors argued its use should be restricted mainly to patients with FH. But Mark Schoenebaum, Evercore ISI's pharmaceutical analyst, says that investors were initially disappointed because they had hoped the FDA would greenlight the drug for an even broader group. Regeneron shares were down 2.5% in afternoon trading before they were halted pending news. But doctors may prescribe the drug more widely than the label suggests. A survey of physicians published this morning by Geoffrey Porges, an biotechnology analyst at investment bank Sanford C. Bernstein, found that they would use the drug in 30% to 40% of patients who had already had heart attacks. He wrote that 2020 sales of Praluent could be as high as $4.8 billion. In the survey, doctors expressed a preference for Praluent. One advantage of Regeneron's drug is that doctors will be able to start it at a lower, 75 milligram dose. Schleifer, who is a medical doctor and, incidentally, a billionaire thanks to his Regeneron stake, says that the company expects that as many as 8 million people who don't have their cholesterol well-controlled could be candidates for Praluent. He emphasized, though, that until larger studies prove the drug prevents heart attacks and strokes patients should always choose statins first. It will have sales repre