Hi Reader,
I've been sitting with a story about cancer patients — and how our reporting made a difference.
A vial of Keytruda — a cancer drug — costs more than $1,500 in India. Out of reach for most families there, even though the same drug costs far more in the U.S. and Europe. That gap is what created a market for something worse than expensive: fake.
In New Delhi, police arrested twelve men who allegedly stole empty Keytruda vials and refilled them with antifungal medicine, then sold them to cancer patients who had no way of knowing the difference. Our reporters traced the counterfeit vials through an eleven-step supply chain (yes, eleven — we counted) and found hospital staff implicated along the way. Two weeks ago, India's drug regulator brought in mandatory QR codes on every vial sold in the country.
Many countries, one pattern: when a drug this expensive meets patients who can't afford it, counterfeits follow. The price gap runs wide everywhere Keytruda is sold — $65,000 a year in South Africa, $208,000 in the US, $80,000 in Germany.
None of that happens without a year of unglamorous reporting first — the kind that doesn't make news on its own, but makes the difference possible. If you're able to support that this summer, I'd be grateful. |
