Dr. Saltz said the combination regimen’s benefit was “truly, truly remarkable for a disease that five years ago we thought was virtually untreatable.” But he said that combining the drugs would cost around $295,000 a patient over nearly one year, which he called unsustainable. If all U.S. patients with metastatic cancer took drugs priced at $295,000 a year, it would cost $174 billion to treat them all for just one year, Dr. Saltz said.

“The unsustainably high prices of cancer drugs is a big problem, and it’s our problem,” Dr. Saltz said, calling on industry, physicians and insurers to work together with government to address the issue.

Dr. Saltz’s estimate of the combination’s cost was based on the average wholesale price of each drug individually and the average weight of a U.S. adult. Opdivo and Yervoy are already approved individually to treat melanoma patients, but not in combination with each other.

Eoin Treacy's view

Biotechnology companies have in many respects taken over the risk of developing new therapies and medicines from the more established pharmaceutical companies. As a result their products have tended to be more expensive when first released as companies try to make the best commercial utility of their patents before they expire. Nevertheless, is it is seldom good for business when doctors make public comments on the expense of products not least by highlighting the conflict of interest in they receiving a commission for prescribing them.


The iShares Biotechnology ETF remains in a consistent uptrend. The consolidation from the March high has been orderly which has allowed at least a partial unwind of the overbought condition relative to the trend mean. A sustained move below $330 would be required to question medium-term scope for additional upside.