Dataharvest 2026 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Big pharma is responsible for inventing and manufacturing hundreds of life-saving innovative drugs, but often those medications come with a hefty price tag. The Cancer Calculus is a global cross-border investigation into how Keytruda, a life-saving cancer drug, is unaffordable for millions across the world and how pharma giant Merck protects their billions in revenue from it.

This session will examine the different tools pharma companies use to protect their revenues, from creating an impenetrable fortress of patents around their drug, to promoting higher doses that boost revenues and wild variation in prices worldwide.

The speakers will walk you through how they approached this complex investigation, the difficulties in unraveling the pricing knots, and what they learned along the way.