Berlin

YEARS before becoming a top cancer specialist, Eric Winer used to save money on his own medical care by talking US pharmacists into giving him expired treatments for free.

Dr Winer, who has a bleeding disorder known as haemophilia, knew that the drugs would still work for a brief time after the official use-by date. The young physician was trying to stay within his insurer's spending limit and avoid having to pay out of pocket one day. Decades later, he recollected that anxious time as he tried to make sense of the soaring prices of drugs for his own cancer patients.