The global expenditure on cancer medication has reached a whopping $100 billion in 2014 and according to a report by IMS Health’s Global Oncology Trend released on Tuesday and from 2013 there have been a 10.3% of increase along with a $25 billion of rise in the last 5 years.
IMS has also found that this $100 billion embodies as 10.8% of all the drugs that is spent worldwide inclusive of supportive care drugs for addressing cancer related side effects such as nausea and anemia and had been maneuvered by more developed and expensive treatment in the developed markets. IMS forecast predicts a rise to $117 billion to $147 billion by the year 2018 which is a compound annual growth rate of 6% to 8%.
The inflow of similar medication as the ones which stimulates the immune system to fight cancer being developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, AstraZeneca, Merck and other companies will give a tough competition which might drive down the cost even if it is by a little.
Murray Aitken, executive director of IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics said, “We’re in for a period of intense competition among alternative treatments, which is a different dynamic than we’ve seen in the past where the progress has been a little slower and individual drugs had a little more time.”
A big chunk of the global spending comes from the United States as it accounts for 42.2% of the total spending followed by the leading 5 of the European markets which includes Germany, France, Britain, Spain and Italy.
In these 5 European markets, the increase in oncology expenditure went up to 14.7% of the total expenditure of drugs from 13.3% in 2010 whereas in the same time period the U.S spending went up from 11.3% to 10.7%.
Medication targeting a specific protein or genetic mutation which counters chemotherapy treatments now takes up about 50% of the U.S cancer drug expenditure as found by IMS after tracking prescription drug data of the industry.
Between the year 2010 and 2014, there had been 45 new cancer drugs launched in the market although in 2014 patients did not have access to the 37 new drugs that had been launched between 2009 and 2013.
The most extensive access had been seen in the U.S., Germany and Britain while less than half of the new drugs had been accessible in South Korea, Japan or Spain as per the report.
The report found that the 5-year survival rate for many cancers are increasing and with new immunotherapies from Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol’s Opdivo assures of an enhanced survival with chances of lesser side effects.
Aitken said, “$100 billion is a significant proportion of total spending on medicines and total healthcare costs, but it’s part of the healthcare system that’s producing great results and bringing great benefit to patients.”