Price of cancer drug Lomustine hiked 1400 per cent since 2013

The price of Lomustine, a cancer drug has skyrocketed around 1,400 per cent since 2013. The steep increase, renders a potentially life-saving treatment out of reach of patients suffering from brain tumors and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Though the 40-year-old medication has no patent protection, no generic version is available.

The Wall Street Journal, reports that lomustine was sold by Bristol-Myers Squib for years under the brand name CeeNU at a price of about $50 a capsule for the highest dose. The company sold lomustine in 2013 to a little-known Miami startup called NextSource, which started hiking the price. The price of lomustine is now nine times that the price in 2013 at $768 per pill for the medication.

An analysis done for the Journal by Truveen Health Analytics and Elsevier, revealed that NextSource this year raised prices for the drug, which it rebranded as Gleostine, by 12 per cent in November after a 20 per cent increase in August.

NextSource CEO Robert DiCrisci, told the Journal that the prices are worked out on the basis of costs it incurred in developing the medication and the benefits it provided patients. Like other drugmakers, the company provides discounts and financial assistance to those who cannot afford  the cost of the medication.