Nowadays, the reality of exorbitant drug pricing overshadows even the most exceptional stories of drug efficacy. It's true that we're making huge biomedical strides, yet it's also true that prices for new drugs are rising, as are prices of existing treatments.
A case in point is nivolumab, which, as Motzer et al. report in this issue of the Journal (pages 1803-1813), appears to extend median survival in patients with metastatic renal-cell cancer by nearly half a year. But the cost to insurers and patients of using the drug for this condition -- by my estimate, around $65,000 for Medicare beneficiaries and up to twice that for commercially insured patients -- can't be ignored.
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