Apr 13, 2026
How Merck turned its wonder drug into a blockbuster — and priced out cancer patients worldwide
The pharmaceutical giant has built a fortress of patents, traded in secrecy and relentlessly lobbied to guard its revenue kingpin Keytruda.
Healthcare
Browse the ICIJ’s complete collection of articles and commentary on healthcare issues.
Apr 13, 2026
Counterfeiters cash in on the world’s bestselling cancer drug
Desperate patients — and even hospitals — have become unwitting customers of fake Keytruda, with potentially fatal consequences.
Apr 13, 2026
‘They deny the medication that is keeping you alive’: Patients wage grueling legal battles for lifesaving cancer drug
As bureaucratic fights to access Keytruda drag on for years, some patients die waiting.
Apr 13, 2026
WATCH: How Merck keeps Keytruda prices sky-high
Bringing together journalists from around the world, Cancer Calculus exposes how families are struggling to access Merck's groundbreaking cancer treatment, and how health care systems are straining under the drug's high price.
Apr 13, 2026
Frequently asked questions about the Cancer Calculus investigation
What is Keytruda? Why is it so expensive? The key findings of the Cancer Calculus, and more.
Apr 13, 2026
About the Cancer Calculus investigation
How Merck keeps the price of its lifesaving cancer drug, Keytruda, sky-high, locking out patients and squeezing health care systems worldwide.
Jul 09, 2025
‘Where would I find this amount of money?’: Private hospital patients in Kenya grapple with crushing debt
More than a decade after the World Bank promised to make health care more affordable, high costs for lifesaving treatments impoverish families in East Africa.
Jul 08, 2025
The World Bank set out to transform health care for the poor in Africa. It drove patients deeper into poverty.
A surge in private equity funding for hospitals left a trail of crushing debts, patient detentions and broken promises.
Aug 28, 2024
US government audit identifies ‘challenges’ in FDA’s monitoring of medical devices linked to patients
An oversight initiative meant to help officials detect medical device safety issues has faltered due to patchy recordkeeping by health care professionals.
Jan 31, 2024
Whistleblower accuses medical tech giant Medtronic of putting ‘profit before patients’
ICIJ’s Implant Files uncovered controversial deals between Medtronic and hospitals around the world. Now, a former U.S. sales representative alleges the company used kickbacks and pressure tactics to make sales, despite patient injuries.
Dec 14, 2023
How reporting on the medical device industry has changed, five years after Implant Files
ICIJ member Jet Schouten kicked off the 2018 project with her reporting on lax regulation in the Netherlands. Since then, reporting on medical devices has only become more difficult.
Nov 28, 2023
Patients and advocates still fighting for safer medical devices five years after Implant Files
The ICIJ-led investigation exposed serious flaws in the multi-billion-dollar global medical device industry, including patchwork regulation and oversight gaps worldwide.
Mar 14, 2023
Medical device company chief arrested over ‘dummy’ implant scam
Florida company Stimwave and its CEO duped doctors into implanting useless pieces of plastic into chronic pain patients.
Aug 18, 2021
Medical device-related deaths being ‘miscategorized’ in key US database, study finds
The new research appears to corroborate a key finding from the Implant Files investigation, which showed revealed how deaths linked to medical devices were being underreported.
Mar 23, 2021
On a mission to ‘build the future of health news’ amid a global pandemic
Syed Nazakat operates India’s first data-driven website dedicated to healthcare reporting, where he and his team have been on the frontline of reporting on COVID-19.
Dec 16, 2020
US medical industry urged to reassess paid events amid doctor kickback concerns
The rare ‘fraud alert’ from the Department of Health and Human Services could signal a harder line on industry-funded speaker programs.
Nov 16, 2020
Heart doctors more likely to implant devices from manufacturers that pay them, new study finds
The research challenges the claim that patient care decisions are not influenced when physicians receive large payments from drug and medical device companies.
Oct 08, 2020
US regulator calls for ‘black box’ warning on breast implants
The new FDA guideline is meant to alert patients to the health risks of breast implants, which have been associated with serious illnesses, ICIJ’s Implant Files investigation found.
Oct 05, 2020
‘Bottle of Lies’ author Katherine Eban on investigating Big Pharma
The bestselling writer discusses how she followed the story of fraud in generic drug manufacturing around the world in an interview with ICIJ.
Sep 04, 2020
Patient advocates push US states to mandate breast implant warnings
Frustrated by FDA delays, some survivors are promoting laws to require informed consent before breast implant surgery in at least six states.
Aug 26, 2020
Bayer to pay $1.6b to settle thousands of US Essure injury claims
Tens of thousands of women claimed they suffered severe health problems after being implanted with the contraceptive device.
Aug 24, 2020
‘They were punishing me for getting sick’
US immigration detainees say they're scared to report coronavirus symptoms, for fear of solitary confinement.
Aug 04, 2020
Essure injury complaints buried by Bayer, lawsuits claim
Only a fraction of incidents in which women were allegedly harmed by the contraceptive device were reported, experts in California cases claim.
Jul 02, 2020
New study backs breast implant illness claims by patients
A new study in a leading plastic surgery journal offers more evidence to support the existence of breast implant illness.
Jun 11, 2020
Lax testing of spinal cord stimulators threatens patient safety, consumer group warns
Public Citizen finds the U.S. health watchdog putting patients at risk by not requiring human trials for all new versions of the implant.