Over 100 influential cancer specialists have joined forces to persuade the pharma industry to reduce the cost of cancer treatments, which can cost more than $100,000 a year.
The specialists have come together from 15 different countries on five different continents to show a united front on the issue, the New York Times reported.
Even researchers with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry are getting involved in the campaign.
Writing in Blood, the online journal of the American Society of Hematology, doctors and researchers who specialise in chronic myeloid leukaemia – blood cancer – branded the cost of treatment for the disease as "astronomical" and "unsustainable".
The specialists argued that charging high prices for such treatment, which is needed to keep someone alive, is similar to raising prices of essential equipment needed after a natural disaster in order to profiteer from it.
Gleevac (imatinib), which is produced by Novartis, is one of the leading drugs to treat blood cancer. It entered the US market in 2001 at a price of $30,000 per year, but since then the price has tripled, the doctors say.
"If you are making $3bn a year on Gleevec, could you get by with $2bn?" Dr Druker, who is now director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, told the New York Times.
"When do you cross the line from essential profits to profiteering?"
Norvartis argues that not many patients actually pay the full cost of the drug, adding that the price reflects the cost of research and value of the drug to the patient.
There has been an ongoing debate about the high price of drugs, with the healthcare industry slowly fighting back.
Last year Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York refused to use a new colon cancer drug made by Sanofi as it was twice as expensive as another drug, without being more effective.
Sanofi eventually halved its price when the doctors publicised it objections to the price of the drug.
The doctors involved in this new commentary on cancer drug prices said they are in favour of a healthy pharma industry but believe the industry needs to ensure that prices are not higher than necessary.
Image: Cancer treatments are too expensive, say doctors. Photo: Courtesy of Leonardini.
