Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: The national drug price negotiation list in China includes 88 anti-cancer drugs. This study aims to calculate the actual travel time required for the Chinese population nationwide to access each of these drugs, and to evaluate its association with drug costs and clinical values.
METHODS: Drug supply institution information, population distribution data, and the friction surface reflecting real-world traffic conditions were extracted from official and open-access web sources. The motorized travel time from the population in each 1×1 km² grid to the nearest drug supply institution was measured using the Cost Distance tool in ArcGIS Pro, and the spatial accessibility of each drug was calculated as the national population-weighted average travel time. drug cost was measured by the Defined Daily Dose cost (DDDc), the clinical value was reflected by the recommendation status in guidelines from the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to evaluate the associations of spatial accessibility with costs and clinical values.
RESULTS: The population-weighted average travel time to access the drugs ranged from 28.77 to 205.15 minutes, with a mean of 68.57 minutes. The number of approved indications (β = -0.299, p < 0.01) and the level of evidence in the CSCO guidelines (β = -0.447, p < 0.01) was significantly and negatively correlated with the population-weighted average travel time. DDDc (p = 0.649) and the levels of evidence in the ESMO (p = 0.115) and NCCN guidelines (p = 0.170) did not show significant correlations with spatial accessibility.
CONCLUSIONS: Substantial variations exist across different national price negotiated anti-cancer drugs. Institutional procurement of these drugs is driven by domestic clinical demand.