The Cost of Oncology Drugs: A Pharmacy Perspective, Part 2
Guidance documents, the Pharmacy Benefits Management Services, and the VA National Formulary help clinicians and pharmacists decide whether to administer high-cost cancer treatments.
Dr. Dahl is a clinical pharmacy specialist in oncology and director of the Oncology Pharmacy Program at the VA San Diego Healthcare System in California.
Author disclosures The author reports no actual or potential conflicts of interest with regard to this article.
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Federal Practitioner, Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the U.S. Government, or any of its agencies. This article may discuss unlabeled or investigational use of certain drugs. Please review the complete prescribing information for specific drugs or drug combinations—including indications, contraindications, warnings, and adverse effects—before administering pharmacologic therapy to patients.
Conclusion
Using newer, expensive targeted oncology agents in a cost-effective manner must be a proactive, collaborative, and multidisciplinary process. Pharmacists should not be solely responsible for monitoring and controlling high-cost treatments. Well-informed, evidence-based decisions are needed to ensure expensive agents are used in the subset of patients who are most likely to benefit. Clinical tools addressing value should be used to aid in appropriate and cost-effective treatment plans using drug monographs and CFUs, VHA Guidance on Determining Clinical Benefit of High Cost Oncology Drugs, and the Oral Chemotherapy Dispensing and Monitoring Reference, among other resources. Due to the subjective nature of value in medicine, agreeing on policy will have many challenges, such as how to place a value on various gains in overall survival, progression free survival, response rates, and QOL.
