Combination Cancer Drug Therapies Show Promise

Cancer researchers see promise in giving patients combinations of multiple drugs that are proving more effective than one or two. But the strategy poses a dilemma for health insurers and patients: even higher prices.

Researchers said at a medical meeting here Sunday that adding a third drug, Johnson & Johnson ’s Darzalex, to an older two-drug combination for patients with multiple myeloma significantly slowed the blood cancer’s growth compared with the older two-drug combination alone in a clinical trial.

But the combined cost of the drugs—based on current list prices and the dosing schedule used in the study—would be at least $180,000 for the first full year of treatment for the average patient. Darzalex, which was introduced last year, costs about $134,550 for the first year and $76,050 each year thereafter, a J&J spokesman said.