Memorial Sloan Kettering doctor challenges cost of oncology medication, targets Opdivo/Yervoy

Drugmakers have been challenged on the cost of new cancer therapies by the chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Leonard Saltz called the cost of new cancer therapies into question, specifically citing studies that show recent price increases haven’t corresponded to an increase in efficacy. He focused on the cost of regimen of Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) from Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). Data presented at ASCO showed that patients with advanced melanoma who received this combination lived for a median of 11.5 months without the disease worsening, versus 6.9 months and 2.9 months respectively for the drugs as a monotherapy. Although Dr Saltz noted that the benefit of the combination was “truly, truly remarkable for a disease that five years ago we thought was virtually untreatable,” the combination would cost around $295,000 per patient over nearly one year. It would cost $174 billion to treat every suitable patient for a year alone.

He said the cost of new cancer drugs in the USA rose from $4,716 in the period from 2000 to 2004 to around $9,900 from 2010 to 2014, when measured using inflation-adjusted dollars. Dr Saltz said:  "Cancer-drug prices are not related to the value of the drug... prices are based on what has come before and what the seller believes the market will bear.”