Timeline of Authorization and Reimbursement for Oncology Drugs in Italy in the Last 3 Years

Introduction The main purpose of this analysis was to quantify the time elapsed between the validation date of European Medicines Agency (EMA) centralized procedure and the first purchase of a product by at least 1 Italian health care structure, evaluating different variables that affect the process, the number of products approved by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) that are available on the Italian market (July 2016), and the impact of the Cnn class for oncology drugs in Italy. Methods A panel of oncology products has been defined, which considered drugs approved by the EMA between January 2013 and December 2015, and authorized for the treatment of oncology diseases, excluding generics. Data were obtained via the EMA website by the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA; the Italian Medicine Agency) meeting reports, by official administrative acts of marketing authorization, and the date of the first purchase (first day of the first handling month). Results The mean time of EMA evaluation for the considered panel of medicines was about 441 days (standard deviation (SD) 108; range 266-770); the average approval time for AIFA was about 248 days (SD 131; range 85-688). Interestingly, the mean AIFA evaluation time decreased significantly from 264 days for products submitted to AIFA assessment in 2013-2014 to 219 days for products evaluated in 2015-2016. Focusing on the regional access, both the timing and the number of drugs available for patients were widely different from region to region. Discussion A reduction in the approval time in the last 2 years has been observed in Italy. However, several variables influence the efficiency of the process and need to be addressed to make the access to drugs timely and efficient.