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The New York Times 01/14/2015

Why Drugs Cost So Much

Eli Lilly charges more than $13,000 a month for Cyramza, the newest drug to treat stomach cancer.

The latest medicine for lung cancer, Novartis’s Zykadia, costs almost $14,000 a month. Amgen’s Blincyto, for leukemia, will cost $64,000 a month.

Why? Drug manufacturers blame high prices on the complexity of biology, government regulations and shareholder expectations for high profit margins. In other words, they say, they are hamstrung. But there’s a simpler explanation.

Read the full article here.

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