Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pas 1112 days ago
Can you elaborate a bit on the cost? Why is it expensive? Will it still be expensive after the patents/marketing-exclusivity expires?
1 comments

I don’t know much about pharmaceutical pricing or drug discovery to offer an informed opinion as to why it’s so expensive ($300/day) or whether that’s justified.

AstraZeneca’s patent expires in 2035 and as a cash cow ($2B in revenue) I would expect they continue to aggressively fight competitors in court.

Imatinib (the 1st gen drug of the same class) went generic a few years ago and is 99% cheaper now.

I assume we’ll see something similar with osimertinib but I can’t comment on whether there’s any secret sauce that makes it different.

Perhaps one of the pharma/biochem HN commenters can offer more insight.