High Prices for Cancer Drugs are set at Launch: ‘It’s Where the Action Is’

There is little question that rising prices for medicines – including many cancer treatments – is a flashpoint in the growing controversy over health care costs. But just how much have the prices for new cancer drugs been rising in recent years? A new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that, of 58 cancer drugs that were approved by the FDA between 1995 and 2013, the launch prices increased by 10% a year, or an average of about $8,500, when adjusted for inflation and a formula for determining survival benefits.