Sector News

Novartis, Celgene meds take the biggest shares of cancer drug spending

May 28, 2015
Life sciences
Cancer drug spending is up. Cancer drug prices are way up. And as a new Express Scripts report shows, spending on each cancer patient is mounting; it’s among the reasons why a growing number of individual patients account for $100,000-plus in annual drug spending. And a few big drugs made big contributions to that rise.
 
As the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting approaches, the pharmacy benefits manager released some numbers on cancer drug spending. The top line? Spending on cancer meds grew by more than one-fifth last year, with a 9% increase in use and almost 12% increase in prices.
 
Prime suspects for that increase? The leukemia treatment Gleevec, from Novartis, which boasts the biggest share of the market at 12.5%. Fellow blood cancer treatment Revlimid–the multiple myeloma therapy from Celgene–came in close behind with 10.8% of pharmacy benefit spending.
 
In third place by market share is Lupron Depot, the AbbVie med used to treat several conditions, including prostate cancer. And rounding out the top 5 were two newly generic chemotherapies, capecitabine, also sold by Roche under the brand name Xeloda; and temozolomide, the Merck & Co. pill Temodar that’s used to treat brain tumors.
 
And the growth shows no sign of slowing, the PBM said in a blog post, partly because of new meds coming to market–including Pfizer’s blockbuster-to-be breast cancer med Ibrance (palbociclib), Novartis’ myeloma med Farydak (panobinostat) and Eisai’s thyroid cancer treatment Lenvima (lenvatinib). Not to mention the PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapies that are swiftly racking up data (and approvals) in multiple cancers, including Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo.
 
“Express Scripts expects cancer medications will maintain their lead position as a major contributor to drug spending in the pharmacy benefit, due to the availability of new medications and increased survival requiring long-term use of expensive and complex treatment,” the PBM notes.
 
That’s why Express Scripts is so keen on negotiating discounts with drugmakers, including pay-for-performance deals that would peg prices to results. It’s also why Express Scripts is impatiently waiting for–and lobbying on the behalf of–biosimilar meds. The PBM says 11 biosimilars closest to FDA approval could save the healthcare system $250 billion over the next decade. That would include Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab), two of the top-selling cancer meds on the planet.
 
By Tracy Staton
 

comments closed

Related News

March 24, 2024

Johnson Matthey to sell its Medical Devices business for $700 million

Life sciences

Johnson Matthey Plc (JM; London) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell 100% of its Medical Device Components business (MDC) to Montagu Private Equity (Montagu) for cash consideration of US$700 million (£550 million) on a cash free debt free basis.

March 24, 2024

Lonza acquires biologics manufacturing plant in California from Roche

Life sciences

Lonza AG (Basel, Switzerland) announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Genentech large-scale biologics manufacturing site in Vacaville, Calif. from Roche (Basel, Switzerland) for $1.2 billion. The acquisition will significantly increase Lonza’s large-scale biologics manufacturing capacity.

March 24, 2024

Roquette to acquire IFF Pharma Solutions to boost global excipient presence

Life sciences

Roquette plans to acquire International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) Pharma Solutions for an enterprise value of up to €2.85 billion (US$3.09 billion). With the acquisition set to close in the first half of 2025, the plant-based ingredient and pharmaceutical excipients supplier aims to reinforce its position in the pharmaceutical industry.

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach