Only half of new cancer drugs extend or improve life

Only half of new cancer drugs extend or improve life Barely half of new cancer drug indications approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had evidence that they offered a survival or quality of life gain over existing treatments or placebo, according to a new study published today in The BMJ. Its authors suggest this shows that regulatory evidence standards are failing to meet the needs of patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems. Experts have called for health technology assessment programmes to demand that the pharma industry evaluates survival directly in methodologically rigorous trials, rather than relying on modelling using surrogate markers. OnMedica