A new Amgen Inc. lung cancer treatment, Lumakras, carried a hefty price tag when it came out in 2021: $17,900 per patient monthly. Just over a year later, in December 2022, a second drug for the same type of cancer, Krazati from Mirati Therapeutics Inc., had an even higher price: $19,750 a month — a 10% premium.

As drugmakers face rising pressure to rein in repeat or annual price hikes on existing drugs, new brand-name medicines are coming to market with ever-higher price tags on day one. Previously, companies would carefully consider whether to crack big price barriers when launching a drug, like $5,000 and then $10,000 a month. Now, many new drugs for cancer and rare diseases routinely exceed those price thresholds, often coming in at more than $20,000 a month.

Two new cancer drugs approved in the U.S. in January — Eli Lilly & Co’s Jaypirca for mantle-cell lymphoma and Stemline Therapeutics Inc.’s Orserdu breast-cancer treatment — each cost at least $21,000 a month, or more than $250,000 for a full year of use.

Some new drugs that are intended to be one-time treatments now carry starting prices in the millions of dollars per patient. CSL Ltd’s Hemgenix, a gene therapy for the blood disorder hemophilia B, made its debut with a list price of $3.5 million after it was approved by U.S. regulators in November. CSL said the pricing reflects the treatment’s benefit to patients, potentially sparing them from repeat dosing of an older, costly drug.