Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is not mincing words when it comes to the cost of cancer care in America. In a post on X, the senator pointed a finger squarely at pharmaceutical companies, suggesting that the financial devastation many cancer patients face is not an unfortunate side effect of the disease, but a direct consequence of drug pricing.
His message was blunt: 42% of cancer patients in the U.S. drain their life savings within two years of getting a diagnosis. Why? As Sanders put it, "Well, maybe it has something to do with the greed of Big Pharma charging over $400,000 for new cancer drugs." He called the situation "insane," arguing that a cancer diagnosis should not be a one-way ticket to bankruptcy.
Sanders didn't cite a specific source for that 42% figure, but the numbers do check out. A 2018 study published in The American Journal of Medicine found that 42.4% of adults with a new cancer diagnosis had wiped out their entire net worth within two years. The average hit? About $92,098. That analysis, which crunched data from the Health and Retirement Study between 1998 and 2014, estimated the impact across roughly 9.5 million cancer diagnoses.
The senator's comments come on the heels of a significant FDA approval. In late August, Revolution Medicines Inc. (Revolution Medicines (RVMD)) won the green light for its pancreatic cancer drug, Rasonque. This is the first approved therapy from a new class of broad RAS-selective inhibitors, and the clinical data is impressive. Rasonque cut the risk of death by 60% compared to traditional chemotherapy. Patients on the drug had a median overall survival of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months with chemo, and progression-free survival nearly doubled to 7.2 months from 3.6 months.
But here's the catch: according to a New York Times report, Revolution Medicines has priced Rasonque at around $480,000 per year. That's not an outlier. Several cancer treatments now carry annual price tags between $400,000 and $600,000, including CAR-T therapies and daily oral pills. In 2024 alone, nine newly approved cancer drugs launched with sticker prices exceeding $400,000, according to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
Drugmakers, for their part, push back on the criticism. They argue that high prices reflect genuine breakthroughs that have turned once-deadly diseases into manageable chronic conditions, or even cures. They also point out that smaller biotech companies, like Revolution Medicines, need those hefty price tags to recoup the enormous costs of drug development and running expensive clinical trials.
It's a familiar tug-of-war: innovation versus access. But for the 42% of patients who see their life savings evaporate within two years of a diagnosis, the debate isn't academic. It's a matter of financial survival.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by MarketDash editors.
