Corrects paragraph 5 in February 5 story to say 2025 Prolia sales were $4.4 billion, not $1.05 billion
Feb 5 (Reuters) - CVS Health CVS.N said on Thursday it would swap out Amgen AMGN.O and Eli Lilly's LLY.N bone disease treatments for lower-cost alternatives in some of its preferred drug lists, starting April 1.
Its pharmacy benefit management unit, Caremark, will add biosimilar versions of Amgen's Prolia such as Ospomyv, sold by CVS unit Cordavis, and Celltrion's 068270.KS Stoboclo. It will also add generic versions of Lilly's Forteo, including Bonsity and Tymlos, to major national commercial formularies.
The shift would lower costs by more than 50% per prescription compared with branded drugs, CVS said, adding that its biosimilar formulary strategy has generated $1.5 billion in gross savings for customers and their members to date.
Key U.S. patents for Prolia, used to treat osteoporosis and other bone conditions, expired in 2025, while primary patents for Forteo expired in 2019.
Amgen reported global Prolia sales of about $4.4 billion in 2025.
The move builds on Caremark's decision to exclude AbbVie's ABBV.N blockbuster arthritis drug Humira from its lists in favor of cheaper biosimilars in 2024. CVS said on Thursday about 96% of Caremark members using Humira have since switched to a biosimilar.
Unlike conventional generic drugs, which are easy to produce and are exact copies of the branded medicines, complex biotech drugs made from living cells cannot be exactly matched, and are called biosimilars.
Pharmacy benefit managers act as middlemen for employers and health plans. They negotiate rebates and fees with manufacturers, and create lists, or formularies, of medications that are covered by insurance, and reimburse pharmacies for patients' prescriptions.
Three PBMs, CVS' Caremark, Cigna's CI.N Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group's UNH.N Optum Rx, control 80% of the U.S. prescription drug market.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
((Mariam.ESunny@thomsonreuters.com;))