[Dr. Sivana]

The high price of the drugs, called CAR-Ts, may set off a debate about the bioethical implications of making life-saving pharmaceuticals unaffordable.

Aw heck, I seem to remember that AZT and the anti-AIDS regimen was inthe hundreds of thousands back in the '90s. The price came down later. If the alternative to the high costs are no development at all, there's no issue. Nowm, if grant money was used to do the developing, that might call for different outcome.

[Rockingham]

Greedy though Yescarta's developers and owners may be when it comes to pricing, they have but limited opportunity to recoup their development cost before they can spin new money. They no doubt already worry about the day when they inevitably have to drop the price.

The price curve for innovation has early users paying the most, with later users paying less as the underlying science advances, the production technology becomes widespread and mature, and competition takes hold. In flat screen TVs, for example, this process is well underway, while it is only beginning for anti-cancer immune therapies.

Already though, Yescarta is priced so as to gain market share against the current more expensive primary immunotherapy drug. Even better therapies are in the pipeline though, with Yescarta itself soon to face competition and price pressure. Ten or twenty years from now, as better drugs take hold, Yescarta is likely to be reserved for a limited set of cases and to generate but limited cash for its owner.