, Columnist
Cancer Drugs Can't Stay This Expensive Forever
Competition is rising, along with political pressure.
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Cancer drugs have mostly been immune to the pricing pressure affecting many drugmakers. That's likely to change, even for new and potentially curative drugs.
Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio recently told Bloomberg News he doesn't expect to see intense pressure to cut cancer-drug prices. He had better hope not: Bristol-Myers is a leader in immuno-oncology (IO) drugs, which boost the immune system to fight cancer. The drugs can be highly effective, but at a mind-blowing cost. Bristol-Myers sells a combination of two, Opdivo and Yervoy, that costs $256,000 per patient in the U.S.