Bristol-Myers Cancer Drug Combo to Cost $256,000 a Year

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said its combination of two key cancer drugs, approved Oct. 1 by U.S. regulators for a form of melanoma, will carry a list price of $256,000 a year on average.

The price is for a patient that takes four doses of the combination—which includes a standard dose of the drug Yervoy and a lower dose of Opdivo—every three weeks, followed by a higher dose of Opdivo alone every two weeks.

The cost of cancer treatments has drawn scrutiny from doctors such as Leonard Saltz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who estimated earlier this year that the ...