Chasing cheaper cancer drugs

LONDON In a nondescript suburb south of London, tucked away behind a big hospital, Paul Workman and fellow scientists are celebrating victory in the "World Cup" of cancer drug research for their work in discovering a stream of new medicines.

But the win is bitter-sweet. One of the new drugs behind the coveted prize from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has been deemed too costly to use in state-run British hospitals like the one next door.

It is a stark example of the pricing crisis now facing cancer medicines across the globe.

In developed and developing countries alike, patients and governments are struggling to pay for modern drugs that are revolutionising cancer care but may cost tens of thousands of dollars a year for each patient.

"It's very frustrating," says Workman, who heads up the drug discovery unit at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), which is funded in large part by charities.

What is needed, he believes, is a new model that takes advantage of the highly specific nature of modern targeted therapies to slash drug development timelines and costs.

In the long term, Workman is convinced that will happen. But for the moment the world is caught in a pinch point as global drug companies put sky-high price tags on cancer medicines in a bid to recoup development costs for drugs aimed at a relatively small number of cancer sufferers.

The strains are growing - whether in Europe, where austerity has savaged health care budgets, or in the United States, where out-of-pocket costs can bankrupt patients, or in the developing world, where price tags of around $5,000 for a month's drug supply are simply out of reach.

INDIA LOSES PATIENCE

India, a country with a long history of making cheap off-patent drugs and a sometimes brittle relationship with Western drugmakers, has finally lost patience.

Follow this link:
Chasing cheaper cancer drugs