Dr Mark Lythgoe speaks to ecancer about his study showing slower cancer drug approval in Europe. He initially talks about the background and methodology of the study.

Dr Lythgoe then explains the results. The study shows patients in Europe are waiting much longer for access to new cancer drugs compared to the US, with a median delay of 241 days.  

The study identified US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is quicker to approve new oncology drugs compared with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) over the past decade. 85 oncology drugs (95%) were approved first in the US and 4 drugs (5%) approved after Europe.

The study also found that most licensing applications for the oncology drugs were submitted to FDA first (64 applications or 72%). In the US, 34 oncology drugs (39%) were approved prior to the publication of pivotal trial results, compared with 8 (9%) in Europe.

Dr Lythgoe concludes by discussing the impact of these results and by thanking the co-authors of this study.