The Wall Street Journal illustrates the continuing problem of soaring drug prices by zeroing in on a cancer drug called lomustine. Used to treat brain tumors and Hodgkin lymphoma, the drug sold for about $50 a pill under the brand name CeeNU as recently as 2013. Then owner Bristol-Myers Squibb sold the drug to manufacturer CordenPharma.
After no fewer than nine price hikes via seller NextSource Biotechnology, the drug now sells for $786 a pill under the name Gleostine. ne example of the fallout: A patient at Duke University School of Medicine with a brain tumor discovered that his out-of-pocket expenses would be more than $2,800 a month and opted to go without. In this case, a big problem for him and other patients is that no generic alternative exists.
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