Researchers from MSK and the Oregon Health and Science University sought to find out the approximate cost to bring a cancer drug to market. Their study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine (09/11/17), sought to quantify a standard amount by focusing on new cancer drugs and analyzing the company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine research and development costs. Although the new study was small, its estimates found the median cost was below previous estimates while profits were in the tens of billions. Dr. Sham Mailankody from MSK commented in an NPR article about their findings.

MSK’s David Hyman and Peter Bach were interviewed by The New York Times about two revolutionary treatment strategies, immunotherapy and personalised medicine, and a problem that few would have predicted several years ago. There are not enough patients available to conduct the trials, the New York Times reports, something the newspaper describes as possibly being “unprecedented” in medical research. There are currently about 1,000 immunotherapy drug trials, and that number’s expected to grow. Peter Bach told the Times that “we are squandering our most precious resource—patients.”