US Accounts for 46% of Global Oncology Drugs, Supportive Care Costs

Reprinted from SPECIALTY PHARMACY NEWS, a monthly newsletter designed to help health plans, specialty pharmacies, pharma companies, providers and employers contain costs and improve outcomes related to high-cost specialty products. 

By Angela Maas, Managing Editor

June 2017 Volume 14 Issue 6

Last year, the global costs of oncology drugs and supportive care medications totaled $113 billion, according to a new report from the QuintilesIMS Institute. That’s up from $107 billion the previous year (see chart below), notes the report, titled Global Oncology Trends 2017: Advances, Complexity and Cost. By 2021, the report projects that global spending on oncolytics and supportive care will surpass $147 billion.

“Of the global trend, the U.S. accounted for 46%” of those costs, an increase from 39% in 2012, said Murray Aitken, executive director of the institute during a May 31 conference call.

The report observes that the cancer mortality rate in the U.S. declined 1.7% between 2004 and 2013, with lung and prostate cancer showing the biggest decreases.

Globally, 68 novel cancer medications have been approved in 22 indications since 2011. The oncology drug pipeline has 631 unique molecules in late-stage development, an increase of 7.7% over the past year and a 45% increase over the past decade.

According to Aitken, “We are seeing pricing concessions by manufacturers that are reducing net price growth.”

Specifically, the report notes that manufacturer discounts and rebates “offset one to two percentage points of the 4-7% average invoice price growth in oncology in the United States.” Such offsets were used in more than 25% of retail prescriptions for oncology medications among people with commercial insurance in 2016, up from 5% in 2011. In addition, the average offset over the past five years has been more than $500 per prescription.

Request the report at http://tinyurl.com/y8xwqobq.

Global Oncology and Supportive Care Costs US$Bn

SOURCE: QuintilesIMS, MIDAS Q4 2016, March 2017. Reprinted from Global Oncology Trends 2017: Advances, Complexity and Cost, QuintilesIMS Institute, released May 2017. Request the report at http://tinyurl.com/y8xwqobq.

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