This report examines trends in new and evolving oncology endpoints being studied in clinical trials. It also looks closely at how these evolving endpoints could potentially be used to evaluate clinical benefit, support regulatory approval, and inform payer reimbursement decisions effectively and more efficiently. Case examples are included to paint a picture of how payers in the EU and U.S. are beginning to evaluate these evolving clinical trial endpoints as part of reimbursement decisions.
Advances in cancer treatments have led to longer survival for patients across a range of tumor types. Traditionally, clinical trials for medicines measure long-term survival and do not measure evolving endpoints, but this presents a challenge because of the need to get the right product to patients at the right time. This has prompted the exploration of new, evolving endpoints that consider the difficulty in capturing long-term survival, while still providing a means to measure clinical value for adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies and allowing for the comparison of trials across multiple dimensions. Although these evolving endpoints have already been used for regulatory approvals, there are still conflicting opinions among payers on when they may inform reimbursement decisions. Assessing the landscape of emerging endpoints provides all stakeholders with visibility to the issues that require further consideration and investigation as they move closer to broad use for regulatory approvals and reimbursement – and ensure that timely access to novel therapies can be provided to patients with cancer who need them.