In terms of blockbuster which typically defined as $1 billion per annum, many are blockbusters. The single best drug I can think of in the last 30 years took a disease that if you were diagnosed in your 50s, you'd have a life expectancy of three years. So that's the best drug that's Gleevec or Matt Nib. We should be aspiring for now it's okay that not every drug has to be Gleevec, but 2.1 months I think is the median and we can do better than that.
Oncologist and epidemiologist Vinay Prasad argues that too many very expensive drugs get approved by the FDA that have very limited impact on the lives of patients. Prasad explains the incentives that distort the current system. The general problem, he explains to EconTalk host Russ Roberts, is the death of duty--too many players in the health care landscape and elsewhere stay quiet or do the wrong thing in order to serve themselves.