OBJECTIVES

: The time spent agreeing price and access for oncology products in Europe is a key factor in ensuring patient access is not delayed. Despite many countries trying to augment their ’standard’ process with mechanisms to prioritise and expedite cancer drugs, the duration of oncology appraisals is still highly variable. This analysis aims to investigate the ’real-world’ access timelines and price of oncology drugs in EU5 countries, and describe differences between countries and differences versus the published industry standard.

METHODS

: Five oncology drugs (Votrient® (pazopanib), Revlimid® (lenalidomide), Imbruvica® (ibrutinib), Cyramza® (ramucirumab) and Afinitor® (everolimus)) approved between 2007 and 2017 were selected as examples for this analysis. Time to achieve price and access was defined as the first price listing date in the IHS database RESULTS

: German and UK show fast access timeline of less than 100 days on average, while Spain and Italy show a comparatively slow timeline of between 300 and 400 days. The access timeline in France was shown to range from 200 days to as long as more than 3 years.

CONCLUSIONS

: Oncology drugs showed a faster time to access than industry standard, however the gap appears to be decreasing over time. In countries where price and access processes are well defined, oncology drug access timelines are more likely to be in alignment with industry standard. France, Italy and Spain present high variation on access timeline.

REFRENCE

1. PharmOnline International (POLI) - Pharmaceutical Pricing & Reimbursement Database
2. Efpia Market Access Delays Analysis, www.efpia.eu