Red tape hurting Australian cancer patients

AUSTRALIAN cancer patients are waiting twice as long as those overseas to get access to lifesaving new treatments because we take too long to approve new biomarker tests for the medicines.

A major report by cancer experts will today call for red tape to be cut and the nation’s medicines watchdog to take over the job of approving both the medicines and blood tests. For example:

MELANOMA drug Vemurafenib was Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listed in Australia in September but recommended in Canada and the UK almost five years earlier. TRASTUZUMAB for breast cancer and gastric cancer was PBS-listed in January 2016 in Australia but recommended in the UK in 2010.

Former Cancer Council chief Professor Ian Olver, now from University of South Australia’s Sansom Institute for Health Research, said this would speed treatment access. Many breakthrough treatments rely on patients undergoing a biomarker blood test to detect molecules produced by their cancer or by their body in response to the cancer.

The organ in which their cancer appears now matters much less in determining their treatment than the presence of these molecules. For example, both breast and gastric cancer patients can benefit from treatments that target the HER 2 positive biomarker.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that biomarkers are the silver bullet that can speed up diagnosis and pinpoint the best treatment approach for the patient, maximising the response while minimising toxicities,” Professor Olver said.

The problem for patients is the body that approves these new blood tests, the Medical Services Advisory Committee, is separate to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee that approves subsidies for expensive new treatments and this adds to the time it takes to make the new medicines available to patients.