Purdue Pharma, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., was forced into bankruptcy last year by the opioid crisis. Pressure on the opioid front comes even as drug firms are producing medicines and providing services, including testing and vaccine development, needed to help slow the coronavirus pandemic. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
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Biomarin Pharmaceutical, a California company that makes what could become the first gene therapy for hemophilia, says its drug's price tag might be $3 million per patient. Maciej Frolow/Getty Images hide caption
Gene Therapy Shows Promise For Hemophilia, But Could Be Most Expensive U.S. Drug Ever
Generics may not have the same cost-lowering power for specialty medicines, such as multiple sclerosis drugs, researchers find. That's true especially when other brand-name drugs are approved to treat a given disease before the first generic is approved. Gary Waters/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption
A medical assistant administers insulin to an adolescent patient who has Type 1 diabetes. Cigna's pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, says it covers 1.4 million people who take insulin. Picture Alliance/Getty Images hide caption
One of the Trump administration's proposals would change the prices Medicare pays for certain prescription drugs by factoring in the average prices Europeans pay for the same medicines. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
It Will Take More Than Transparency To Reduce Drug Prices, Economists Say
Drug prices in the United States support spending on research and development, said AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez (far left) in testimony by drug company executives before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption
Susie Christoff tried several drugs to cope with her painful psoriatic arthritis before finding Cosentyx worked the best. The problem was the cost. Chris Bartlett/for Kaiser Health News hide caption
Why The U.S. Remains The Most Expensive Market For 'Biologic' Drugs In The World
In a speech Friday, President Trump announced a plan that lists dozens of "potential" steps his team may take to lower drug prices, along with many others that were included in his budget proposal and will require congressional action. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
Metformin pills — they're a go-to drug for type 2 diabetics — move through a sorting machine at a pharmaceutical plant in India. Sara Hylton/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Lulabelle Berry surveys the 600 acres she and her husband, Jimmy, own in the Ozarks near Mountain View, Ark. Berry walks laps on her porch to aid her recovery from a stroke. She says she's grateful for the drug that saved her life. "It's been a good life," she says. Sarah Jane Tribble for Kaiser Health News hide caption
Rural Hospitals Struggle To Stock Expensive Drugs That Could Save Lives
Kaiser Health News
Rural Hospitals Struggle To Stock Expensive Drugs That Could Save Lives
Valeant Pharmaceuticals, based in Bridgewater Township, N.J., bought two specialty heart drugs used in emergency treatment from Marathon Pharmaceuticals in 2015, and then dramatically increased each drug's price. Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
A Drugmaker Tries To Cash In On The Opioid Epidemic, One State Law At A Time
Side Effects Public Media
A Drugmaker Tries To Cash In On The Opioid Epidemic, One State Law At A Time
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, is promoting a campaign to get the National Institutes of Health to exercise the patent rights it already owns in regards to certain drugs to bring down their price. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. hide caption
One Way To Force Down Drug Prices: Have The U.S. Exercise Its Patent Rights
Opana ER was reformulated to make it harder to crush and snort, but people abusing the drug turned to injecting it instead. And that fueled an HIV outbreak in Indiana. Rich Pedroncelli/AP hide caption
ALS patients and their families rallied for expanded access to experimental drugs in Washington, D.C. on May 11, 2015. Courtesy of Lina Clark hide caption
Patients Demand The 'Right To Try' Experimental Drugs, But Costs Can Be Steep
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., embraces Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., during a media briefing about the 21st Century Cures Act on Capitol Hill on Nov. 30. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption
A clinical trial at the Biotrial laboratory in Rennes, France, left one person dead and put five more in the hospital. Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Tom Stanton of the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle shows off empty lab space at Roche in Nutley, N.J. Daniel Tucker/WNYC hide caption
Each year, millions of Americans don't fill their prescriptions because they can't afford to. Maya Kovacheva Photography/iStockphoto.com hide caption