It is a widely held belief that the very high prices charged for many new drugs are necessary to sustain "innovation", which in turn generates important therapeutic advances for patients. Some authors have questioned this analysis, using cancer drugs as an example (1)."Me-toos" rewarded. The director of a renowned cancer centre in the United States argued in a financial magazine that the height to which drug prices have soared in recent years actually harms innovation (1). In the field of cancer, high prices enable drug companies to target very small markets in terms of the number of potential patients, but that generate huge profits (1). This encourages a "me-too mentality" by attracting other drug companies to enter these lucrative markets (a). For example, the author mentions 7 ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, all currently under development for the treatment of cancers that only affect a few thousand patients each year in the United States.
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