OBJECTIVES: Timely access to medicines, especially for patients with life-threatening diseases, is a major goal for pharmaceutical policy internationally. However, policy regulations, technology assessment requirements as well as financial constraints for the third-party payers, tend to increase the necessary time until a patient reaches a new treatment alternative. The aim of the present study was to estimate the time from the centralized authorization to the actual availability for oncology medications in Greece, during the years of the financial crisis.

METHODS: The study sample included all medications with an indication for oncology that received centralized authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) during 2009-2015 and entered the Greek pharmaceutical market. Time to market access (in days) for a medication was defined as the period spanning from the centralized approval until its official market entry in Greece, i.e. the first announcement of the medicine’s price (inclusion in an official price bulletin).

RESULTS: The sample included 48 medications, of which 13 were approved during 2009-2011, 12 during 2012-2013 and 23 during 2014-2015. The average time to market access for an oncology medication was 530 days (range: 162 – 1394 days). For medications that received EMA authorization in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, the respective time was 721, 705, 873, 328, 434, 536 and 404 days.

CONCLUSIONS: Time to market entry for an oncology medication in Greece exceeds the European average and shows an increase compared to previous estimates for the country. Regulatory processes that combine appropriate health technology assessments as well as timely access for patients are imperative.