Supportive Care in Oncology | Access and Reimbursement | US | 2017
The treatment of both solid and hematological cancers is associated with a wide range of serious side effects, including chemotherapy-associated neutropenia and anemia, nausea and vomiting, and oral mucositis. In addition to some of these adverse events being life-threatening, they have a significant detrimental impact on patients’ quality of life and often require dose delays, dose reductions, or cessation of cancer treatment, thereby compromising outcomes. As a result, the optimal treatment of chemotherapy-related side effects using supportive care therapies is an integral part of good cancer patient care. Clinical factors play a critical role in supportive therapy choice, but payer restrictions also shape prescribing decisions. Emerging therapy and biosimilar pricing will have a significant impact on MCO coverage in commercial plans in the near future. A significantly lower price than the standard of care features prominently among the top most important attributes for development of new supportive care therapies, both according to surveyed payers and physicians.
