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. 2020 Aug 17;12(8):2313.
doi: 10.3390/cancers12082313.

Unequal Access to Newly Registered Cancer Drugs Leads to Potential Loss of Life-Years in Europe

Carin A Uyl-de Groot  1 , Renaud Heine  1 , Marieke Krol  2 , Jaap Verweij  3
Affiliations

Unequal Access to Newly Registered Cancer Drugs Leads to Potential Loss of Life-Years in Europe

Carin A Uyl-de Groot et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Many new cancer medicines have been developed that can improve patients' outcomes. However, access to these agents comes later in Europe than in the United States (US). The aim of this study is to assess the access in Europe to newly registered cancer drugs and to get more insight in the implications of these variations for patients.

Methods: A retrospective database study was conducted. Analyses involved 12 cancer drugs and 28 European countries in the period 2011-2018. Time to patient access, speed of drug uptake, and the potential loss of life years due to a delay in access have been studied.

Results: Marketing approval for the cancer drugs came on average 242 days later in Europe than in the US, and actual patient access varied extensively across Europe. The average time to market in Europe was 403 days (range 17-1187 days). The delay in patient access of ipilimumab and abiraterone may have led to a potential loss of more than 30,000 life years.

Conclusion: It takes a long time for patients to get access to newly registered cancer drugs and there is great variation in access. The health outcomes can be substantially improved by faster processes.

Keywords: access; cancer drugs; delay; inequality; life years.

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Conflict of interest statement

C.A. Uyl-de Groot: Unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas, Celgene, Sanofi, Janssen-Cilag, Bayer, Amgen, Genzyme, Merck, Gilead, Novartis, Astra Zeneca and Roche outside the submitted work. R. Heine: none. M. Krol: none. J. Verweij: Non-executive medical director: Octimet. Stock options: Octimet. Honoraria for consulting in last 24 months: Basilea, Genmab, InteRNA, Octimet, CoBioRes.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient newly registered drug access pathway. EMA: European Medicines Agency; FDA: USA Food and Drug Association; HTA: health technology assessment; TTM: time to market.
Figure 2
Figure 2
EMA trajectory of 12 newly registered oncological drugs (in days). EMA: European Medicines Agency.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Time to first uptake for 12 newly registered oncological drugs across Europe (in days).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Speed of drug uptake for 12 newly registered oncological drugs in first two years across Europe (average rank, range) (Note: Too little access data for ranking: Lithuania, Greece, Bosnia, Estonia).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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