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For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs

The price of cancer drugs has skyrocketed, yet it is not clear whether their value is commensurate with their price. More cancer drugs are approved under expedited review, which considers less rigorous clinical evidence, yet only 20% of them show an overall survival gain in the confirmatory trial. M...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shin, Gyeongseon, Kwon, Hye-Young, Bae, SeungJin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998346/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074204
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author Shin, Gyeongseon
Kwon, Hye-Young
Bae, SeungJin
author_facet Shin, Gyeongseon
Kwon, Hye-Young
Bae, SeungJin
author_sort Shin, Gyeongseon
collection PubMed
description The price of cancer drugs has skyrocketed, yet it is not clear whether their value is commensurate with their price. More cancer drugs are approved under expedited review, which considers less rigorous clinical evidence, yet only 20% of them show an overall survival gain in the confirmatory trial. Moreover, clinical data are often generated based on small, single-arm studies with surrogate outcomes, challenging economic evaluation. With their high price and uncertain (marginal) clinical value, cancer drugs are frequently rejected by health technology assessment (HTA) bodies. Therefore, agencies, including the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have adopted cancer drug funds (CDF) or risk-sharing schemes to provide extra access for expensive cancer drugs which fail to meet NICE’s cost effectiveness threshold. With rising pricing and fewer new cancer medications with novel mechanisms of action, it is unclear if newly marketed cancer therapies address unmet clinical needs or whether we are paying too much. Transparency, equity, innovativeness, and sustainability are all harmed by a “special” approach for cancer medications. If early access is allowed, confirmatory trials within a certain time frame and economic evaluation should be conducted, and label changes or disinvestment should be carried out based on those evaluations.
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spelling pubmed-89983462022-04-12 For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs Shin, Gyeongseon Kwon, Hye-Young Bae, SeungJin Int J Environ Res Public Health Commentary The price of cancer drugs has skyrocketed, yet it is not clear whether their value is commensurate with their price. More cancer drugs are approved under expedited review, which considers less rigorous clinical evidence, yet only 20% of them show an overall survival gain in the confirmatory trial. Moreover, clinical data are often generated based on small, single-arm studies with surrogate outcomes, challenging economic evaluation. With their high price and uncertain (marginal) clinical value, cancer drugs are frequently rejected by health technology assessment (HTA) bodies. Therefore, agencies, including the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have adopted cancer drug funds (CDF) or risk-sharing schemes to provide extra access for expensive cancer drugs which fail to meet NICE’s cost effectiveness threshold. With rising pricing and fewer new cancer medications with novel mechanisms of action, it is unclear if newly marketed cancer therapies address unmet clinical needs or whether we are paying too much. Transparency, equity, innovativeness, and sustainability are all harmed by a “special” approach for cancer medications. If early access is allowed, confirmatory trials within a certain time frame and economic evaluation should be conducted, and label changes or disinvestment should be carried out based on those evaluations. MDPI 2022-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8998346/ /pubmed/35409887 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074204 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Commentary
Shin, Gyeongseon
Kwon, Hye-Young
Bae, SeungJin
For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title_full For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title_fullStr For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title_full_unstemmed For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title_short For Whom the Price Escalates: High Price and Uncertain Value of Cancer Drugs
title_sort for whom the price escalates: high price and uncertain value of cancer drugs
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998346/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074204
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