Singapore- Johnson & Johnson will implement a new pricing and dosage scheme for cancer med IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) conveniently ahead of research that suggests the drug, which costs ~$148K/year, would work just as well at lower doses.

The research, conducted by the nonprofit Value in Cancer Care Consortium, showed that leukemia patients might be fine with one or two pills/day after a lead-in period of three pills/day.

The company has apparently decided to discontinue the original 140 mg capsule and will offer four tablet strengths instead, each priced at $400 or triple the previous price.

The Medicare patient co-pay will be about double the current $5,000 and the cost to Medicare will rise ~$100K, exclusive of rebates.

Johnson & Johnson has been working on once-daily single-tablet dosing since 2015 aimed at improving patient compliance. The downside is that it will be more laborious to adjust the regimen, done previously by just reducing the daily pill intake. The new scheme, a dose exchange program, will require paperwork and the shipment of the new tablets to the doctor or patient.