Over the past few years, the war on drug prices has intensified and been marked by a series of signal events—for example, oncologists publically refusing to allow a pricey new therapy such as Sanofi’s Zaltrap on their formulary, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) (e.g., Express Scripts) and governments (e.g., the United Kingdom’s National Health System) refusing to cover breakthrough therapies such as Gilead’s Sovaldi. Moving forward, the pricing pressures manufacturers face from payers will likely only intensify, whether they be government or private, domestic or foreign.

One therapeutic area that manufacturers can look to as a proxy for where this drug price war is likely headed is oncology, and more specifically immuno-oncology (I-O). Despite only a handful of I-O drugs currently on the market, the introduction of these drugs has already seemed to galvanize budgetary concerns and pricing resistance.

This article explores some of the emerging trends likely to impact market access and pricing for I-O drugs.