The Nobel prize for medicine this year has gone to two immunology researchers, James Allison, an American currently at the University of Texas, and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University. These two independently discovered “checkpoints” in the immune system, which eventually resulted in “checkpoint inhibitor” drugs used to treat certain cancers. Allison made his key discovery while working at Berkeley in the 1990s; Honjo, who discovered a different checkpoint in 1992, worked for many years under the auspices of the National Institute of Health (which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
Drug companies have developed treatments based on this research, and “checkpoint inhibitor” drugs are a hot area for new drug development. According to a Reuters report, the cost of these drugs runs about $12k – $13k per dose, or roughly $150,000 per year; one combo treatment from Merck is reckoned at around $256,000 per year. Fortunately for those drug companies that have obtained approval, there isn’t a lot of competition to keep these prices down and, in the U.S., payers, including Medicare, are required to cover cancer drugs. Bristol-Myers, for example, took in about $6 billion in 2017 from its Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) drugs, and Merck’s revenues for its Keytruda were $3.8 billion. In May last year, Keytruda got FDA approval as a treatment for lung cancer, a kind of Holy Grail for drug companies since (a) there are about 156,000 cases per year in the US, (b) there aren’t many very effective treatments and (c) the victims are almost certain to die if they don’t get treated. Bonanza!
Reuters quotes research firm GlobalData in the same article as estimating the global market for cancer immunotherapies to grow from $16.9 billion in 2015 to $75.8 billion by 2022. But these estimates pale beside the projections of one doctor who calculated that drugs for the 589,430 victims dying from metastatic cancer every year might cost $173,881,850,000. Every year.
The two laureates will share a prize worth slightly less than one million dollars. Enough to treat maybe seven cancer patients.
Also, the Nobel guys made this portrait, so there’s that:

As for the U.S. and California taxpayers who subsidized the original research, they will get – kudos?
In the UK, the National Health Service initially declined to approve the use of these drugs on the grounds they were just too expensive. They later were given an undisclosed discount and cut a deal.
Oliver Corlett, oeconoclast, Big Pharma, profiteering, unbelievable gross disgusting things
Each comment or response costs a tiny ETH fee of 0.00033 (about 5¢ in Ethereum cryptocurrency), payable from your Metamask.io wallet (the wallet is free, and takes just a moment to add to your browser). This system helps protect Popula conversations from trolls, fakers, Cambridges Analytica and other malign influences.
If you haven’t got any ETH yet and you’re a Popula subscriber, please write to hey@popula.com with your subscriber email address and MetaMask wallet address, and we’ll send you a little bit to get started! It’s pretty easy and a lot of fun to use, Yay.
If you’d like to learn more about cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and how Popula is using these new technologies to help protect speech rights and the free press, please visit our FAQ page.
We’re having trouble checking your subscriber status. Try refreshing the page.
Welcome! To leave a comment, you’ll need to log in, and also have your MetaMask wallet ready with some ETH cryptocurrency available.
It’s easy! Just visit metamask.io to install an in-browser MetaMask wallet. If you’re a new subscriber, write to hey@popula.com for $2 in free ETH crypto!
Thank you for being a Popula subscriber! As a subscriber, you may leave comments, but you have to be logged in as commenter here first. This is an additional login—the login for your commenting privileges—and you’ll stay logged in after you log in the first time.
We’ve sent an email to your registered address at … with your commenting details. Please follow the directions in the email to open your commenting privileges and then come back here to leave your first comment!
Thanks for registering! Please log in and you can get started commenting.
You need to connect to the Main Ethereum Network before you can leave a comment. Click on your MetaMask icon so the window pops up, then select ‘Main Ethereum Network’ from the network-chooser dropdown at the top.
You’re logged in and ready to leave comments! All you need is a MetaMask wallet and a little ETH cryptocurrency, just like with our microtipping system.
If you know what MetaMask is and have it installed, activate MetaMask and refresh:
Each comment costs 5¢ in Ethereum cryptocurrency to post! Just write your comment and click the green button. Thank you, Popula subscriber, for joining us in the new world of cryptoeconomics! Please don’t forget to set your wallet address in order to receive tips on your comments.
Alas! commenting is not yet available on your mobile device. Each comment costs a little ETH cryptocurrency to post, and for now that requires a regular computer.
So please go to your laptop, install the MetaMask browser plugin, and hold forth!