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

IntroductionThe 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.MethodsA 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).ResultsThe mean time of EMA evaluatio...