For years, the drug maker Amgen has struggled to sell its new anti-cholesterol drug, Repatha after insurers balked over the list price of about $14,000 a year.

On Wednesday, Amgen took a new approach: It said it would slash the list price to $5,850 a year in hopes of increasing sales, especially among Medicare beneficiaries who are particularly vulnerable to a drug’s list price.

Amgen announced the move at a time when the drug industry, under public pressure to do something about high costs, is struggling to demonstrate that it is addressing the issue. The Trump administration has made the cost of drugs a major piece of its health care agenda, with Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, frequently focusing on the list prices.

But few consumers pay the list price. In recent months, several major manufacturers have bowed to government pressure, putting temporary halts on planned price increases, although few have lowered list prices. The drug makers have said that’s because they are beholden to intermediaries, like the pharmacy benefit managers and distributors, who take a percentage of their pay from a drug’s list price, creating an industrywide incentive to keep list prices high.