Many Cancer Drugs Don’t Extend Life
· 20 min
Episode Many Cancer Drugs Don’t Extend Life
Treating cancer is a massive business. In 2024 alone, cancer treatments generated at least $200 billion in worldwide sales for the pharmaceutical industry, more than the obesity drug rush. But a Bloomberg News analysis showed that fewer than half of treatments reviewed — some of which have painful side effects — have been shown to extend patients’ lives.
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg senior healthcare reporter Robert Langreth takes host David Gura inside what some doctors call the “cancer-industrial complex” — from the regulatory landscape that ushered in a wave of lucrative new drugs to the damaging financial and health impacts some treatments can have on patients.
Read more:
Cancer Drugs Cost More Than Ever. They Often Don’t Extend Lives.
The Implants Were Supposed to Dissolve. They Didn’t.
Pharma Is Pushing $200,000 Cancer Drugs When Cheaper Doses May Work
Cancer Doctors Are Making a Fortune Off Drug-Trial Participants
One Generic Cancer Drug Costs $35. Or $134. Or $13,000.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Links in the notes 6
- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-cancer-treatment-costs
- https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-biozorb-cancer-implant-recall
- https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-experimental-cheaper-treatments-cancer-capitalism
- https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-cancer-drug-trials-money/?sref=RTae6dyr
- https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-cancer-drug-markups/?srnd=undefined
- https://omnystudio.com/listener
Transcript
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.