The FDA is meeting for three days to discuss a matter it hasn’t touched in nearly ten years.
At issue is whether cancer treatments that are approved based on successful early trials are still producing results after years on the market.
According to a recent report by the Associated Press, the cost of new cancer drugs has risen at a much faster rate than patient survival.
They add that researchers believe the FDA’s failure to follow up on long term results of these drugs has left “a glut of expensive, unproven cancer drugs on the market.”
FDA officials will review drugs produced by Merck, Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb, reviewing presentations by producers and input from cancer specialists.
The FDA’s approach to fast-tracking approvals based on early results has been criticized, especially since the agency rarely revokes those approvals.
According to the AP, “The FDA has used its authority to revoke an accelerated cancer approval only once,” despite the expedited approval of 155 cancer drugs.
