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The First Drug With A $1 Million Price Tag May Already Be On The Market
In March, comparing the price of a cancer drug on a per capita basis here and in India, I told drug companies how to charge $1.6 million per patient for a new drug — and get away with it. So long as companies make sure that all patients have access, I argued, it’s possible to convince governments and insurers to pay truly princely sums for medicines that really help patients.
Still, I thought that $1.6 million, was a sky high, off-the-charts, unbelievable amount. Surely, no medicine for sale today cost more than $1 million I thought. In fact, the priciest one I can name is Soliris, from biotech high-flyer Alexion, which costs $500,000 per patient — a lot, but still only half a million. Turns out I was wrong — it’s possible that medicines that are already on the market could rise to this price point, if they continue to help young patients grow bigger.