Patrick Swayze, Alex Trebek, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all died of pancreatic cancer. They were wealthy enough to afford any treatment that existed. But there simply wasn’t a drug available — at any price — that could save their lives. This is the cruelest access problem in healthcare. The most expensive illness is not the one with the costliest drug, but the one with no drug at all. The price of a cure not yet invented is effectively infinite.
That was true for pancreatic cancer, until now.
This spring, Revolution Medicines reported that its experimental treatment daraxonrasib nearly doubled survival in pancreatic cancer patients who were out of other options. The new drug seems almost miraculous. A year ago, former Senator Ben Sasse was told he had a month to live. Thanks to the medicine, he’s not merely still alive — he’s enjoying time with his family and touring the country for media interviews.
But daraxonrasib is not a miracle. It is the predictable result of a legal, financial, and regulatory system that routinely transforms scientific insights into lifesaving medicines. Policymakers built that system over the past five decades, and it has become the envy of the world — so much so that China and other countries are trying to copy it.
