News and Reports | March 23, 2026
Analysis is part of a new series on Pharma-driven price hikes of essential medicines
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs released a new analysis showing that drugmakers are raising prices on lifesaving oncology medications while lobbying to delay Medicare Drug Price Negotiation programs — reinforcing a pattern of price hikes alongside efforts to weaken reforms.
In the first week of 2026, pharma increased prices on 64 oncology drugs, with 73% of hikes exceeding inflation. Cancer drugs already cost $74,000 more per year on average than other drugs on the market, and a shocking 51% of American cancer patients go into debt as a result of the cost of treatment.
At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry is pushing Congress to pass the EPIC Act, which would delay when small-molecule drugs — including widely used, high-cost cancer treatments — become eligible for Medicare price negotiation by four years.
“Cancer is a leading cause of death among American seniors, and the treatments patients rely on are already among the most expensive,” said Merith Basey, CEO of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “Yet as they continue to hike prices, the pharmaceutical industry is also working overtime to block reforms that would lower them — and patients are paying the price.”
For patients in our community, oncology drugs cause significant financial strain:
Cheryl Ann from Kentucky: “I take Brukinsa for my chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). A grant pays for the drug, but if it weren’t paid for by someone else, I would not be getting this chemotherapy treatment — the drug would cost me $14,000 a month after insurance.”
Marilyn from New York: “I have stage 4 metastatic breast cancer with liver metastases, and have spent years fighting on many different drugs. Now I’m on Enhertu, and I have to pay $300 for every infusion.”
Steven from North Carolina: “There isn’t a generic option for Brukinsa, so I have no choice but to buy this medication. So many people need the drug to stay alive. At times, I’ve had to forgo or ration some of my drugs because of their high costs.”
Drugmakers and their allies have also filed 11 lawsuits challenging Medicare negotiation, in an industry-wide legal campaign intent on rolling back the program’s reforms.
Oncology Price Hikes Report_FINALRead the full analysis here.
This analysis is the third in a series examining how pharmaceutical companies are hiking prices on lifesaving medications across disease areas — including HIV and rare diseases — while lobbying Congress to delay the reforms designed to lower them.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only national patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on policies that lower prescription drug prices. We empower and mobilize patients by amplifying their experiences with high drug prices to hold those in power to account and fight to shape and achieve system-changing policies that make prescription drugs affordable for all people in the United States. P4AD does not accept funding from organizations that profit from the development and distribution of drugs. To learn more, visit PatientsForAffordableDrugs.org