Makers of anticancer drugs are “profiteering,” say 100 specialists from around the world

More than 100 specialists in chronic myeloid leukaemia from around the world, including nine from the United Kingdom, have warned that the high prices that drug companies charge for anticancer drugs are leaving patients without access to treatments that could save their lives.

The group said that the drug industry was guilty of “profiteering” and compared its actions to those of unethical speculators who raise the price of grain after a natural disaster.

“What determines a morally justifiable ‘just price’ for a cancer drug?” they asked in a paper published in Blood.1 “A reasonable drug …