June 1, 2017 /
1:03 PM CDT / Updated June 2, 2017 / 7:05 AM CDT
By Maggie Fox
Spending on cancer
treatments has spiked past the $100 billion mark globally over the past five
years, with almost half that amount in the United States alone, according to a
report released Thursday.
The extra money is
mostly going to pricey new targeted drugs that are adding years to some
patients’ lives and transforming the way certain cancers are treated, the
report from the independent QuintilesIMS Institute finds.
Quintiles found that
worldwide spending on cancer drugs and supportive medications — such as
anti-nausea drugs and blood boosters — grew from $91 billion in 2012 to $113
billion in 2016. Patients in the U.S. accounted for 46 percent of that
spending.
The report predicts
annual growth of between 6 percent and 9 percent through 2021.
Extremely expensive
targeted immunotherapy drugs have driven changes in both spending and cancer
care, the report finds.
“During the past
decade, advances in personalized medicine and immuno-oncology have fueled a
major shift in treatment of cancer,” the report reads.
Traditional cancer
treatments have always included surgery and still do, but old-fashioned
chemotherapy was a blunt weapon aimed at any fast-growing cell. Chemo has
improved but the targeted therapies can help select groups of patients even
more, with fewer side-effects.
“Since 2011, the
cancer treatment landscape has been transformed by new medicines which target
22 different types of cancers," the report reads.
These include drugs such as Keytruda, which takes a new
approach to treating cancer by stopping tumor cells from cloaking themselves
against the immune system response that normally takes out cancerous
cells. Keytruda — known generically as pembrolizumab —
targets the activity of genes called PD-1 (anti-programmed-death-receptor-1)
and PD-L1.
“Since 2011, the
cancer treatment landscape has been transformed by new medicines which target
22 different types of cancers.”
Keytruda costs about
$12,500 a month, or $150,000 a year. It’s been approved for a growing list of
tumor types and earlier this month became the first cancer drug ever approved
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be used on any solid tumor, based
on its genetic profile. Other drugs with similar actions include Tecentriq,
known generically as atezolizumab.
Drug companies are
encouraged by the effectiveness of these drugs, quicker approval times and the
price tags, too.
The FDA and other
regulators have approved 68 new cancer drugs since 2011 and 631 potential new
drugs are in development, Quintiles found.
The median approval
time from a company getting a patent on a drug to final FDA OK has dropped from
10.25 years in 2013 to 9.8 years in 2016, the report also found.
“The concept of
personalized medicine is now an integral part of clinical practice in
oncology."
One type of cancer
that’s benefited from research advances is melanoma, the report noted.
Melanoma is a big killer. More than 76,000 Americans
will be diagnosed with melanoma this year and more than 10,000 will die from
it, up from 8,500 in 2009, according to the American Cancer Society.
Not only are there
the new PD-1 immune therapy treatments, but there are drugs targeting other
genetic mutations, including BRAF inhibitors, MEK inhibitors and anti-CTLA4
drugs that have tripled the number of melanoma patients who get treatment.
“Until the relatively
recent launch of these innovations, there was virtually no effective therapeutic
option for melanoma patients,” the report noted.
“The concept of
personalized medicine is now an integral part of clinical practice in oncology,
and more clinical trials are stratifying patient populations with predictive
biomarkers; this has led to improved clinical outcomes by stratifying patients
for their response to treatment,” the report said.
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