Hurdles in anticancer drug development from a regulatory perspective

Between January 2001 and January 2012, 48 new medicinal products for cancer treatment were licensed within the EU, and 77 new indications were granted for products already licensed. In some cases, a major improvement to existing therapies was achieved, for example, trastuzumab in breast cancer. In other cases, new fields for effective drug therapy opened up, such as in chronic myeloid leukemia, and renal-cell carcinoma. In most cases, however, the benefit-risk balance was considered to be only borderline favorable. Based on our assessment of advice procedures for marketing authorization, 'need for speed' seems to be the guiding principle in anticancer drug development. Although, for drugs that make a difference, early licensure is of obvious importance to patients, this is less evident in the case of borderline drugs. Without proper incentives and with hurdles inside and outside companies, a change in drug development cannot be expected; drugs improving benefit-risk modestly over available therapies will be brought forward towards licensure. In this Perspectives article, we discuss some hurdles to biomarker-driven drug development and provide some suggestions to overcome them.