The Price of Remission: This Cancer Drug Saves Lives -- but Costs a Fortune. I Wanted to Know Why.

[In It to Win It]

https://www.propublica.org/article/revlimid-price-cancer-celgene-drugs-fda-multiple-myeloma

The pain jolted me awake. It was barely dawn, a misty February morning in 2023. My side felt as if I’d been stabbed.

I had been dealing with pain for weeks — a bothersome ache that felt like a bad runner’s cramp. But now it was so intense I had to brace myself against the wall to stand up.

A few hours after arriving at the emergency room, I heard my name. A doctor asked me to follow him to a private area, where he told me a scan had uncovered something “concerning.”

There were lesions, areas of bone destruction, on top of both of my hip bones and on my sternum. These were hallmarks of multiple myeloma. “Cancer,” he said.

Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that ravages bone, leaving distinctive holes in its wake. Subsequent scans showed “innumerable lesions” from my neck to my feet as well as two broken ribs and a compression fracture in my spine. There is no cure.

I walked out of the ER in search of fresh air. I sat on a metal bench and did what many patients do. I turned to Google. The first link was a medical review stating that the average lifespan of a newly diagnosed patient was three to five years. My stomach churned.

Cancer drug Revlimid is one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of over 0 billion.

It’s also extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly ,000 for each pill, even though that pill costs just 25 cents to make.

By @davidarmstrongx.bsky.social

— ProPublica (@propublica.org) 2025-11-28T23:00:11.498676284Z

[EdmondDantes_]

1. One of the biggest drivers of healthcare costs is pharmaceuticals

It's an enormous problem. We pay more than anywhere else, but everywhere else is only behind us.

Yes there are major costs with developing drugs, but we need to figure it out.

[walkingman]

2. Corporations love America because they know they can continue their corrupt, greedy, practices

without oversight or regulation. It is shameful and the people of this country are nothing more than victims.

[Skittles]

3. well worth the read

excellent reporting

[lostnfound]

7. WELL. WORTH. THE. READ. (I'll second that.) They should teach this entire article to 12th graders.

So many excellent lessons in here, of patents, revenue and costs, and civics (and biology and chemistry).

[mercuryblues]

4. Thanks In It.

I take Revlimid. I have mentioned several times here about the high cost and how sustainable it is.

It is about $18,000 a month. 21 pills for a 30-day cycle.

My ins company sent me a letter they are changing me to the generic in 2026.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

6. Is it the generic equivalent,

or a different drug?

[mercuryblues]

8. As far as I know it isn't

I talked to my doctor and she said that the generic was recently approved and on the market. And it is a generic of Revlimid.

What pisses me off about this is the cost for Revlimid. There is no reason it should've ever cost that much. This is a 60+ year-old drug for almost $20,000 a month to find out it was $.25 a pill to make is unbelievable. the rest is pure profit and paying off people to keep control over the drug. In my opinion that is malpractice.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

10. Well, the generic should be much cheaper

[mercuryblues]

11. It should be

I am waiting to see what I will be charged.

Right now, I pay $75 a month for my pills. The insurance picks up the rest and they had a deal with the manufacturer.

[lostnfound]

12. This makes me inclined to throw the FDA and whole drug patent process out the window

How could it be worse??
Sure, there’d be snake oil salesman and a fraudulent-drug-free-for-all, but honestly it CAN’T be worse than this.
Even drugs that are dirt cheap that find new application get captured by the GREED MACHINE.

I guess this bullsh** is why MSNBC was getting so much advertisements for medicines. The drug companies needed to put a leash on the outlet most likely to break the truth wide open to a knowledgeable audience.

One in my circle of concern is getting a $800 Canadian equivalent for a $14,000 medicine.

The idea that others are DYING because this executive and his salesmen want to keep their cushy lifestyles, and for others, large amounts of money is just getting pushed around from employers to insurance to pharma with patients stressed needlessly and doctors burdened with bullsh** authorization procedures???

It’s beyond revolting. Give us snake oil freedoms instead.

I would also like to add that most of the research being done can just as easily get done at universities in a sane society.

[karynnj]

5. That is an interesting article that explains how the price gorging happens

Incidentally, the CEO at the time that the drug began being used, Bob Hugon, is mentioned in the article as having made a run for the Senate. I didn't remember his name. He ran as a Republican against Menendez in 2018. He was the Chair of the NJ GOP until July, 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hugin
Note that the wiki article speaks of him "saving the company".

[mike_c]

9. everyone should read this article

Greedy rat bastards!