AstraZeneca
AZ
AZ is a global research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in the UK.
ID: 42561875992-94
Lobbying Activity
Response to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan
3 Mar 2020
We are encouraged by the Roadmap for “Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan”, which could have a significant impact on the 3.5 million people diagnosed with cancer in the EU each year. Our ambition at AstraZeneca is to push the boundaries of science to eliminate cancer as a cause of death.
Significant advances have been made with age-standardised mortality reducing and continuous increases in 5-year survival rates for the most common cancer types. This has been achieved while the share of total health expenditure represented by cancer has stayed at 4-7% of total spending, while cancer represents 20% of European disease burden.
To ensure further improvement in patient outcomes and increased equality of access to treatment, continuing investment is needed. We recommend the Roadmap consider the following:
1-Accelerating evidence-based screening programmes and setting specific goals
The Roadmap recognises the benefits that screening can deliver however, we suggest that the Roadmap fails to reflect the advance in evidence base for lung cancer screening in particular.
5-year survival rate for lung cancer in Europe is less than 20% and it is responsible for 1 in 5 cancer deaths. The NELSON trial concluded that low-dose CT screening reduces lung cancer deaths by 24%. Focus should now be on ensuring the effective implementation of lung cancer screening programs.
At AstraZeneca we are committed to doubling the 5-year survival of lung cancer through the Lung Ambition Alliance, a collaboration with a number of stakeholders, where screening is a key priority. We suggest that the Roadmap should also commit to setting headline goals for improvement in outcomes.
2-Improving access to biomarker testing
In addition to early diagnosis patients need accurate diagnosis. Guideline-recommended biomarker testing isn’t reaching every EU citizen. The Roadmap should support the need to test patients at diagnosis and at progression to understand their tumour and ensure optimal treatment and treatment sequence or access to clinical trials.
3-Increase access to cancer treatments
Variations in cancer outcomes across Europe demonstrate that more needs to be done to ensure every patient has access to the latest treatments, regardless of their location in Europe. The Roadmap should commit to act based on an holistic view of delaying factors. We suggest two specific areas where the Roadmap could commit to action.
Supporting novel pricing and payment models:
To improve time to access for new treatment the Roadmap should commit to supporting readiness for value-based payment models that can accelerate patient access, allowing payers to manage clinical uncertainty, budget impact and provide sufficient incentives for innovation. An area for EU action is the building of databases that can support quality improvement and also underpin such payment models. Further action should be considered in the area of securing consensus around utilisation of reference pricing between Member States to allow differential pricing based on national affordability.
Advancing understanding of relevant endpoints
Scientific discoveries have resulted in therapies that treat cancer in sophisticated ways, improving both patient outcomes and their quality of life. The Roadmap should consider that, as more cancers are detected at earlier stages, newer or adapted clinical endpoints are required.
Multiple endpoints are used in clinical trials to support approval of a new treatment (e.g. DFS, RFS, PFS2, TSST). We suggest that dialogue is needed to build understanding of how these endpoints drive clinical decisions and are relevant to patients, and the role they have in value-assessment of new treatments. In order to ensure that variation in national practices in this area does not worsen access inequalities we suggest that the Roadmap could commit to supporting such dialogue, convening all appropriate stakeholders.
Francoise Bartoli, VP, Head of Europe Oncology
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2 Jul 2019 · Reach
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