drug price

In London to address a gene-editing summit last week, Victoria Gray took a break to visit Sir John Soane's Museum. In 2019, Gray became the first patient to be treated for sickle cell disease using CRISPR, an experimental gene-editing technique. She was invited to talk about her experiences at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing. Orlando Gili for NPR hide caption

Gilead Sciences, maker of the antiviral drug remdesivir, has come up with a price for the COVID-19 treatment that was less than some analysts expected. ULRICH PERREY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The Trump administration aims to boost competition among hospitals and cut costs by letting consumers see how widely prices can vary for the same medical or surgical procedure. But health economists say patients typically have little choice in choosing their hospital. teekid/Getty Images hide caption

In Mexican border towns, big discount drugstores, as well as small pharmacies like this one in Tijuana, market their less expensive medicines to American tourists. Guillermo Arias/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, is promoting a campaign to get the National Institutes of Health to exercise the patent rights it already owns in regards to certain drugs to bring down their price. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. hide caption

Medicare accounts for about 29 percent of all spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. each year. stevecoleimages/iStockphoto/Getty Images hide caption

AIDS activists poured cat litter on an image of Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli during an October protest in New York. Craig Ruttle/AP hide caption

A nurse in 1938 checks the amount of insulin in a needle. For many decades, the only insulin available to people with diabetes came from the pancreases of cattle or pigs. Insulin from animals is still available outside the U.S. — and cheaper than a recombinant DNA version. Bettmann/Corbis hide caption