Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the majority of surveyed European oncologists who favor Pfizer's Sutent indicate that they would switch to an emerging therapy only if it extended progression-free survival (PFS) by at least an additional two to three months, assuming the agent's safety and tolerability profile was comparable to that of Sutent. However, a notable proportion of oncologists would require an improvement of at least six months in PFS over Sutent, suggesting that Sutent—the leading agent in the market—will be difficult to dislodge from its dominant position as the first line agent of choice in this indication.
The new European Physician & Payer Forum report entitled The Next Wave of Targeted Agents for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Insights from European Payers and Oncologists finds that surveyed oncologists who favor Sutent indicate that a reduction in treatment related toxicities of at least 26 percent is required to persuade them to switch to an emerging therapy with the same efficacy profile as Sutent. Regarding efficacy and toxicity, Spanish oncologists have the highest demands among all surveyed oncologists in the EU5—France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
"Most surveyed European oncologists indicate that Sutent is the most commonly used agent in the first-line setting, while Bayer/Onyx's Nexavar dominates the second-line setting," said Decision Resources Director Mary Fletcher-Louis. "However, the third-line setting is highly fragmented and although there is no clear standard of care in the third-line, Pfizer's Torisel and Novartis's Afinitor are frequently used."
The report findings also reveal that across the EU5, oncologists are most likely to consider Sutent to be the best angiogenesis inhibitor for the treatment of advanced RCC with respect to familiarity, patient preference, overall survival benefit, PFS and delivery. Roche's Avastin ranks second to Sutent for clinician familiarity, while Nexavar ranks second for patient preference.
The report also finds that although patient cost-sharing for oncology drugs in Germany is the highest across the EU5, it is not a significant hurdle to access to oncology drugs. Conversely, cancer patients in France are exempt from all out of pocket costs associated with cancer therapy.
The report is based on a survey of 251 oncologists from Germany (50), France (50), Italy (51), Spain (50) and the United Kingdom (50) and interviews with 15 European payers from Germany (3), France (3), Italy (3), Spain (3) and the United Kingdom (3).
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