Article
Stakeholder Challenges With Oral Oncolytics
Patient access, supply chain, adherence, and comorbidities are only a few of the challenges associated with oral anticancer agents, which are included distributed by specialty pharmacies.
The past decade has seen a surge in oral cancer therapies. These agents—representing approximately 25% of all new anticancer drugs in development—provide benefits as well as present new challenges.
Many of these oral agents are distributed through specialty pharmacies, in part because they require proof of Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies compliance. Joseph Bubalo, PharmD, an oncology pharmacy specialist at Oregon Health & Science University, in Portland, estimates that almost half of all oral cancer agents move through specialty pharmacies. Thus, supply channel issues are often at the top of the list of challenges to resolve, not the least of which is access. For example, will a new oral chemotherapy drug even be available to patients at a given hospital or clinic, or do limited distribution networks pose barriers to access?
Read the complete article at ClinicalOncology News: http://bit.ly/1DPKqbL
