Nordic Life Science 1
“We started looking at the pharmaceutical industr
y and then narrowed it down. We began looking at bestselling drugs, and it took us years to look at one drug, so it became a great case study.” Sydney P. Freedberg, Chief Reporter, ICIJ F 20 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG irst approved on September 4, 2014, Keytruda transformed cancer treatment and gave hope to millions. As an immunotherapy drug, it allows the body’s immune system to find and destroy cancer cells. It was initially approved to fight advanced melanoma, and is now used to treat 19 different tumors, according to ICIJ, and the treatment usually lasts two years. But that miracle treatment comes at a high cost. Prices vary widely in different countries as do means of payment. The cost of a 200 mg dose of Keytruda can range from USD 5,858 to USD 43,800 in the US, according to data provided to ICIJ. Investigative journalists all over the world The investigation kicked off after a tip from a whistleblower, then turned into something completely different, says Sydney P. Freedberg, ICIJ's chief reporter, who worked on the article, to NLS. “We started looking at the pharmaceutical industry and then narrowed it down. We began looking at best-selling drugs, and it took us years to look at one drug, so it became a great case study,” she says. The reporters collaborated with investigative journalists all over the world, and the ramifications of the findings are global, according to Brenda Medina, another ICIJ reporter involved with the story. More than 1,000 public requests in 27 countries were filed by reporters, including dozens of requests for records of public pricing, the negotiated price, and the price at which the drug was sold. They pored over thousands of documents and records and conducted hundreds of interviews over the course of the investigation. Merck’s executives didn’t directly answer many questions, and instead issued statements that did not really answer many questions either, says Freedberg. “This was pretty surprising to me. I thought they would have engaged with us.” Patents, pricing, and availability Among the investigation’s most intriguing findings was the calculated steps Merck took to keep a lock on Keytruda’s patent and shut out competitors. While the drug’s primary patents are scheduled to lapse in 2028, Merck “continued TOP STORIES // GLOBAL REPORT