15 May 2018 - Last week, two drug companies that jointly sell a blood-cancer drug made a rare decision: to not move forward with changes that would have effectively tripled the cost of a lifesaving medicine for some patients.

Most patients take three capsules of Imbruvica a day, at an annual price of $148,000 — most of which is picked up by insurance. But just as early evidence began to suggest a lower dose might be effective, Janssen and Pharmacyclics announced they were discontinuing the old capsule and introducing once-a-day tablets in four different dosages.

The new pills were all the same, flat price of $400 — or triple the cost of the original capsule. Patients who had been taking one or two pills a day would see higher costs, and even if future evidence supported the use of lower doses of the drug, patients, insurers and health systems would not save money.

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