Access to medicines for breast, colorectal, and lung cancer in Thailand

PORNSROUNG Saerekul, Tharin Limsakun, Puree Anantachoti, Rungpetch Sakulbumrungsil

Abstract


Abstract:

Cancer drugs have become prohibitive, and consequently their accessibility has increasingly been of great concern in many countries. Particularly, the information about cancer drug access in Thailand has been sporadic. Therefore, the goal of the study was to examine the antineoplastic drug accessibility in Thailand in terms of both market access and patient access. In addition, this study evaluated antineoplastic drugs based on cancer incidence in Thailand, and especially those for the top 3 common cancer types: breast cancer, colorectal cancer and lung cancer.

 Method:

The study method was descriptive in nature to evaluate the number of antineoplastic drugs in both Thai market and reimbursement list or National List of Essential Medicine (NLEM) to reflect the market access and patient access, respectively. In determining Thailand’s market access, the number of active ingredients (APIs) of antineoplastic drugs was obtained from WHO website as reference to the number of Thailand’s Marketing Authorization Approvals (MAAs) of antineoplastic drugs as per Thai FDA website. For the determination of patient access, the number of antineoplastic drugs available to Thai patients was extracted from 2016 NLEM so that it can be compared to Thailand’s MAAs. For further delineation with respect to treatments for each cancer type (ranked by cancer incidence in Thailand), the total number of APIs for each cancer type was used to determine market access and patient access.   

Results:

The accessibility of antineoplastic drugs was 49% (88 of 180 APIs of WHO) for Thailand’s market access and 43% (38 of 88 APIs in Thailand) for the patient access. For the top 3 cancer types, the market access was of high percentage while the patient access from NLEM list was of low percentage.

Conclusions:

The market accessibility of antineoplastic drugs did not pose as a problem for Thailand. Registrations of anti-cancer drugs undoubtedly played a key role for the market accessibility. However, new innovative antineoplastic drugs have presented rather considerable concern for Thai patients, which are further complicated by the NLEM selection process and the limitation of use according to the categories outlined in the NLEM requirements.   

Keyword: Drug Access, Antineoplastic Drug, Patient Access, Market Access


Full Text:

221-229;PDF

References


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