22 September 2015 - Americans are paying way over the odds for some modern cancer drugs, with pharmaceutical companies charging up to 600 times what the medicines cost to make, according to an independent academic study.

The United States also pays more than double the price charged in Europe for these drugs - so-called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), a potent class of cancer pills with fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

The analysis by pharmacologist Andrew Hill of Britain's University of Liverpool, who will present his findings at the Sept. 25-29 European Cancer Congress in Vienna, is likely to fuel a growing storm over U.S. drug costs.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's declared aim to lower the cost of prescription drugs by ending what her campaign describes as "excessive profiteering" triggered a sell-off in drug stocks this week.

Hill told Reuters he had shared his work on the cost of producing TKIs with the World Health Organization (WHO), which is keen to add such treatments to its list of medicines deemed essential for a basic healthcare system. WHO officials have used the findings in determining that the drugs can be made at low cost, he said.

For more details, go to: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/22/us-health-pharmaceuticals-cancer-usa-idUSKCN0RM1EC20150922?feedType=nl&feedName=healthNews