Costs of Cancer Drug Development
Compared to other drugs, cancer drugs are by far the most expensive drugs to develop. Cancer trials are highly complex and focus on specific tumor types that require a specialized research team. Cancer drug trials are different than most other trials because they utilize frequent lab tests and imaging studies. Therefore they are more costly, lengthy, and riskier than a “block buster” drug trial such as a stomach ulcer medicine. Furthermore, the FDA requires cancer survival data that may add many years onto the duration of a trial. Since most cancer drugs fail to make it to market, it is obvious that pharmaceutical companies consider cancer trials as high-risk expenditures.
The most recent analysis by consulting firm Bain and Company in 2004 revealed that one drug reaches the market for every nine tested in clinical trials. This is decreased from one in six drugs reported in 1995-2000. Since this period, drug development costs from discovery to market launch have risen 55% to $1.7 billion for each successful drug (more than the entire FDA annual budget). The estimates for cancer drugs are higher due to the higher costs of cancer trials.
|
