amsterdam_pete said:

The honest answer is that the effect is real, the magnitude is contested, and the individual variation is larger than either.

Filing a mild objection. Mild because I might be wrong; an objection because nobody has addressed the case that does not fit. Small molecule does not automatically mean cheap. Price is set by what the market will bear and by patent life, not by cost of goods, and I would not assume the savings reach patients.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. Say what you would expect to see if you were wrong, before you look. It is a small discipline and it changes what you notice.

Dr.NateNeph said:

Small molecule does not automatically mean cheap.

Coming at Dr.NateNeph’s question from a different direction. The distinction that resolves most of these threads is between what is true on average and what is true for one person. Both are real; they answer different questions and get quoted as if they were the same one.

One thing that is still open after FranDenver’s answer:

What did you change at the same time, and can you separate the two now?

OP back with an update, since a thread like this is useless without one.

Update: the thing I was blaming turned out not to be the cause. Leaving the original post as written rather than editing it, so the mistake stays visible for whoever searches this next.