As in previous years, a "particularly large number" of new drugs was introduced against various types of cancer, according to vfa, whose members represent around two thirds of the German pharmaceutical market and employ nearly 80,000 people in Germany.
For the first time, a drug for the treatment of any type of tumor with a specific gene mutation, regardless of the affected organ, had been approved, vfa noted.
The understanding of cancer diseases had changed, said vfa president Han Steutel. "It is primarily genetic defects that control the development and spread of cancer." Approval for drugs that were based on mutations instead of organ were "therefore likely to be more common in the future."
Seven of the ten cancer drugs introduced in 2019 required a genetic test of the patient prior to treatment in order to check whether the mutation-based drug was appropriate, according to vfa.
The German Center for Cancer Registry Data (ZfKD) estimated that a total of around 492,000 new cancer cases had been diagnosed in Germany in 2016. Between 2006 and 2016, the number of cancer cases in Germany had increased by 2 percent among men and by 5 percent among women.
The total number of new drugs introduced in 2019 was slightly below the average in recent years, vfa noted. Last year, 36 new drugs had been approved in Germany.
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