Surveyed EU5 Oncologists Plan Increased Uptake of Perjeta for HER2-Positive Breast Cancer, But Expect Reimbursement Hurdles for Perjeta Plus Kadcycla

BURLINGTON, Mass., Nov. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that surveyed medical oncologists across the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) currently prescribe Roche/Genentech's targeted agent Herceptin (with or without chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy) to an average of half or more of their first-line HER2+ advanced breast cancer patients. Considering likely funding or reimbursement restrictions, respondents expect their prescribing of Roche/Genentech's Perjeta—which was approved in March 2013—in combination with Herceptin, will increase substantially from an average of no more than 12 percent of such patients currently to around one-quarter of patients in most countries by the end of 2016.

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The new European Physician and Payer Forum report entitled Tightening Healthcare Budgets and Elevated Cost-Effectiveness Expectations: How Will Payers and Prescribers Prioritize Targeted Agents for Breast Cancer in the EU5? also finds that although half or more surveyed oncologists expect that Roche/Genentech's emerging HER2-targeting antibody drug conjugate Kadcyla in combination with Perjeta will likely demonstrate a significant efficacy benefit over single agent Kadcyla or Herceptin with chemotherapy in the advanced HER2+ first-line setting, less than 40 percent of respondents across the EU5 expect premium-priced Kadcyla/Perjeta combination is likely to be reimbursed in their country or region. Collectively, those surveyed anticipate that less than 10 percent of their first-line HER2+ advanced breast cancer patients will receive this combination by the end of 2016, highlighting evolving reimbursement and funding constraints as a major hurdle in achieving optimal uptake for emerging therapies.

The report also emphasizes interviewed EU5 payers' perspectives on the importance of high-cost therapies directly demonstrating a benefit in overall survival over a suitable comparator in order to justify their premium price tag. Interviewed payers stress that for HER2-targeted agents in particular, clinical trial design and efficacy outcomes will be subject to greater scrutiny in health technology assessments as this drug class becomes more crowded, owing to anticipated approvals of novel therapies and the emergence of trastuzumab biosimilars.

"Drug developers need to have effective marketing strategies which demonstrate the main advantages and long-term benefits of treatment with novel targeted therapies to encourage payers and prescribers to look beyond their high cost," said Decision Resources Senior Business Insights Analyst Gemma McConnell. "Increasing competition between current and emerging HER2-targeted therapies and the anticipated entry of less expensive biosimilar trastuzumab amid tightening healthcare budgets make such strategies particularly important in this market segment."

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SOURCE Decision Resources