Cancer treatments hit EU markets months later than US: Rotterdam researcher

New medicines to treat cancer on average come onto the European market eight months later than they hit the United States market, according to a study by Professor Carin Uil-de Groot of Erasmus University Rotterdam. This is partly because the American authorities are much faster in registering new medicines, she concluded.

The Rotterdam professor found that a new cancer drug comes onto the European market after an average of 403 days, according to newspaper AD. In the United states, this happens after 161 days on average. This means that European cancer patients on average wait 242 days longer to start a new treatment than their American counterparts.

This is partly due to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) requiring more time to register new medicines than the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Uil-de Groot said to AD. There are also differences in how quickly a new medicine is available on the market within Europe itself.

Patients in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Austria overall have the fastest access to a new drug, with averages of 17, 22 and 31 days after EMA approval. In the Netherlands it takes an average of 128 days after EMA approval for a new drug to hit the market.

In Greece and many Eastern European countries, people have to wait an average of 2 to 3 years after EMA approval before getting access to a new medicine.