Drug affordability imperative to ensure cancer patients benefit from cutting-edge therapies

Cancer is one of the world's major causes of illness and death, especially in low- and middle-income nations. This makes introducing affordable and effective cancer treatments a matter of life and death, especially in developing nations.

In recent years, new advances in cancer treatment have been discovered, such as drugs that target particular molecular properties of the tumour, some of which give considerably better results for many forms of cancer than "traditional" chemotherapy.

For instance, the G11 molecule is designed to target cells that have a mutation in the FLT3 receptor, which is required for cell proliferation and propagation. Acute myeloid leukemia, which accounts for over 90 per cent of all acute leukemia in adults, is the most prevalent mutation.

Chemotherapy is helpful at first, but relapse is common, and long-term survival rates are low (less than 20 per cent). Targeted cancer therapies, like traditional chemotherapy, use pharmacological drugs to slow cancer growth, increase cell death, and prevent it from spreading. Targeted therapies, as the name implies, work by interfering with specific proteins involved in cancer. Targeted cancer therapies, rather than using broad-based cancer treatments, maybe more therapeutically useful for several cancer types, including lung, colorectal, breast, lymphoma, and leukemia,  focus on specific molecular changes that are unique to a particular malignancy.

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Thus, the new generation medications being developed because of this new generation molecule could be more effective and less likely to result in a relapse. Furthermore, recent advancements have made it possible to assess and personalise therapy to the tumour of a specific patient.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new edition of its Model Lists of Essential Medicines and Essential Medicines for Children, which includes new cancer therapies. The rankings are intended to address global health priorities by selecting the most beneficial drugs that should be widely available and affordable.

The Model List includes new cancer medications like enzalutamide for prostate cancer, Everolimus used for treating SEGA (subependymal giant cell astrocytoma) — a kind of brain tumour that affects children; Ibrutinib, a drug used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia; and Rasburicase, a drug used to treat tumour lysis syndrome, a dangerous side effect of various cancer therapies.

The most recent breakthrough came with the release of Cabozanib, a novel TKI (Tyrosine kinase inhibitor) that has now been approved in the country for cancer treatment. Cabozanib is an oral medicine that is taken as tablets and has greatly improved the efficacy of treatment for medullary thyroid cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma in particular. It aids in the treatment of various cancers and is a superior alternative to currently available immunotherapy medications.

These breakthroughs are all set to revolutionise cancer treatment and save countless lives due to their effectiveness.

However, as medicine's ability to combat tumours improves, healthcare systems around the world struggle to offer the advantages. When cancer medications become expensive and unsustainable, healthcare systems may be pushed to cut costs by reducing demand and expenditures. This means that if the price of cancer medications rises, governments in low-income nations may decrease the supply of cancer drugs, jeopardizing timely access for patients.

Unaffordable prices have kept many cancer drugs out of reach for a substantial number of cancer patients due to a lack of adequate insurance coverage. Many people with cancer may not be able to benefit from cutting-edge therapy if drug affordability is not addressed quickly. This makes the development of Cabozanib and other new-generation cancer medications more significant, as they offer the hope of affordability while also promising increased effectiveness and efficiency in treating cancer.

The author is the Director, BDR Pharmaceuticals. Views are personal.

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