FDA Approves Cancer Drugs Faster Than European Agency
June 17, 2011|Hospitalist News (Archived)
Author and Disclosure Information
Major Finding: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves new cancer therapies in a median of 182 days, compared with 350 days for the European Medicines Agency, which is a significant difference.
Data Source: Study published online at Health Affairs
Disclosures: The authors are all employees of Friends of Cancer Research, a nonprofit patient advocacy group.
Dr. Marshall said that the market for cancer drugs is changing rapidly. "We have a shifting model from where everybody with breast cancer is going to get Taxol, to certain patients are going to get certain medicines," he said, adding that this shrinks the overall market for a product and thus, probably the interest in investing in that therapy.
