Glivec is the Favored First-Line Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor for Chronic Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, According to Surveyed European Hematological Oncologists

BURLINGTON, Mass., May 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources Group finds that Novartis's Glivec is the clear agent of choice for first-line treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients in the chronic phase, according to surveyed hematological oncologists from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (EU5). Use of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sprycel as a first-line treatment for chronic phase CML is fairly comparable across the EU5 with the notable exception of the United Kingdom, where Sprycel is not recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for any line of therapy. Novartis's Tasigna is more favored as a first-line treatment for chronic phase CML in Germany than in the other profiled countries, according to our survey results.

Other key findings from the European Physician and Payer Forum report entitled Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia: EU5 Prescribing Decisions and Payer Landscape in a Crowded and Dynamic Market:

• Market access hurdles for Bosulif: Authorities in Germany found that the level of additional benefit offered by Pfizer's Bosulif was unquantifiable, which led to difficult pricing negotiations. In the United Kingdom, NICE were similarly critical of Bosulif and did not recommend its use on the National Health Service; the temporary Cancer Drugs Fund currently compensates for lack of such funding.
• Increasing payer monitoring of physician prescribing: Across the EU5, payer strategies to ensure appropriate prescribing of costly oncology agents are increasing. Exemplifying this trend, a majority of surveyed hematological oncologists in Italy consider payer monitoring to somewhat or severely restrict their use of oncology drugs.
• Optimizing pivotal trial design as a key market access lever: Well-designed, head-to-head clinical trials showing robust efficacy benefits over currently available therapies will help optimize pricing and reimbursement conditions for novel CML agents. Interviewed payers from throughout the EU5 stress the importance of choosing appropriate comparators in clinical studies to secure favorable health technology assessment (HTA) reviews and justify cost.

Comments from Decision Resources Group Senior Business Insights Analyst Khurram Nawaz, M.Sc.:

• "Cost-sharing schemes can be a key prescribing differentiator, provided that they are well-designed and easily administered. For example, interviewed payers from the United Kingdom say that straightforward discounts to the list price—as is the case for Tasigna—are undoubtedly favored. Their counterparts from Spain tell us that use of cost-sharing schemes in oncology is mostly confidential to date."
• "In addition to increasingly stringent HTA terms across the EU5, regional autonomy can cause further market access delays. Interviewed payers in Italy and Spain—two countries with federal healthcare models—cite variable, often long delays on time to regional formulary inclusion of oncology agents. As the tyrosine kinase inhibitor drug class becomes crowded, some regions may limit formulary inclusion of costly drugs."

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SOURCE Decision Resources Group