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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Our guest today, David Armstrong,

is a veteran investigative reporter who in 2023 was writing stories about challenges for patients

in American health care when he was suddenly plunged into his subject in a deeply personal way.

He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma,

an incurable blood cancer. He would soon be prescribed a drug called Revlimid, which is cheap to make,

but really expensive to buy. A single pill costs nearly $1,000, roughly the price of a new iPhone.

Armstrong decided to research the development and marketing of the drug,

and he discovered tactics used by drug companies to maintain monopolies on their medications as long as possible and keep prices high.

Revlimit is one of the best-selling pharmaceuticals of all time, with total sales of more than $100 billion.

This is also remarkable since the parent compound in Revlimid, thalidomide, was banned in most of the

world in the 1960s, after it was shown to cause severe birth defects when given to pregnant

...