Cancer Drug Costs Are Too High Relative to Clinical Value

A recent poster presentation at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting found that the clinical value of new oncology drugs is not in line with high price increases over time. 

“The average launch price of oncology drugs has increased by 10% annually from 1995 to 2013,” Kelvin K Chan, MD, associate scientist of evaluative clinical sciences in the Odette Cancer Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute, and colleagues wrote. “The purpose of this study was to determine if the clinical benefit of novel oncology drugs has increased proportionally over time and is correlated with launch price.”

The researchers first identified novel cancer medications from randomized controlled trials with FDA approvals between January 2006 and August 2015. They then used the ASCO Value Framework and the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale to score the efficacy of each oncology drug. Prices were identified using the Redbook, while costs were calculated using the drug’s 28-day dosage schedule and adjusted to 2015 US dollars. The researchers used statistical analysis to determine the cost vs value of each new oncology medication. 

Study results showed that the 28-day drug cost was significantly associated with FDA-approval year—the researchers noted average price increase of 8.5% per year. They also found that incremental drug cost also increased compared with the FDA-approval year, with an increase of 28.6%. 

Additionally, the researchers found that the average ASCO score was 26 and the average ESMO score was 3. According to the study findings, these scores were neither correlated with FDA-approval year or the drugs’ cost.

“Novel oncology drugs are not priced according to their clinical benefit.,” Dr Chan and colleagues concluded. “The rising cost of novel oncology drugs over time is not associated with an increase in their clinical benefit, suggesting a decrease in their value over time.” —David Costill