Global Oncology Trends 2021

Institute Report

Outlook to 2025

Jun 03, 2021

Summary

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic having a substantial impact on patient care during 2020, the scientific advances in clinical trial activity, the pipeline of new treatments, and the increased use of available therapeutics, continued largely unaffected and reflect the commitment to advancing care for patients by oncologists, other care providers, governments and payers, and life sciences companies.

Key Findings

Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Care

The pandemic continues to have a substantial impact on cancer care with oncologist in the US, Japan and Europe reporting caseloads that are 26-51% lower than pre-pandemic levels, delays in necessary treatments, screenings at 11-23% below baseline levels and community oncologists in the US reporting an increasing share of their new patients presenting with metastatic cancer.

Exhibit 1: Percentage caseload vs Pre-COVID-19 Phase

Innovation

Launches of innovative oncology therapies vary around the world, with China notably launching 37 over the past five years, up from 6 in the five years prior, and the EU4+UK launching 53 since 2016 compared to 62 in the US.

Exhibit 16: A total of 64 oncology new active substances have launched globally in the past five years, bringing the 20-year total to 161

Research and Development

Scientific breakthroughs in understanding rare cancers that lead to novel therapeutics and a supportive biomedical eco-system that provides funding and support for R&D especially among emerging biopharma companies, have resulted in a pipeline of almost 3,500 potential cancer treatments, up 75% since 2015.

Bringing Scientific Advances to Cancer Patients

Access to medicines has been steadily increasing and 9.2 billion Defined Daily Doses were delivered globally in 2020, but variability across countries remains high and the use of predictive biomarkers to effectively deliver precision medicines to those who will benefit from them remains variable across cancer types and countries.

Spending on Oncology Medicines

The surge in innovation treatments in recent years, accompanied by a strong focus across health systems to increase early diagnosis and expanded patient access to treatments, has resulted in global spending on oncology drugs reaching $164 billion in 2020 and an estimated $269 billion by 2025 even as annual growth rates ease to about 10%.

Exhibit 52: Global oncology spending growth to exceed $260 billion by 2025, with growth slowing to 9 – 12% from biosimilar savings

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