PARIS — European regulators approved 39 new cancer drugs between 2009 and 2013 despite having no evidence that they worked, unnecessarily exposing patients to toxicity, researchers said Thursday. "In the US, this broken system means huge expenditures on cancer drugs with certain toxicity but uncertain benefit," he wrote in a comment also carried by The BMJ. "The US Medicare programme is legally required to pay for any drug approved by the FDA without negotiation on price." Given the toxicity and expense of cancer drugs, patients should be exposed only "when they can reasonably expect an improvement in survival or quality of life," said Prasad. Approached for comment, the EMA said it "has discussed the evidence underpinning cancer medicines widely and welcomes further debate on this."

Source: Viet Nam News October 04, 2017 23:26 UTC