OHE Lunchtime Seminar: How Cost-Effective are New Cancer Drugs in the U.S.?

On Tuesday 19th September 2017, Professor Frank Lichtenberg from Columbia University will lead an OHE Lunchtime Seminar on the topic of: How cost-effective are new cancer drugs in the U.S.?

On Tuesday 19th September 2017, Professor Frank Lichtenberg from Columbia University will lead an OHE Lunchtime Seminar on the topic of: How cost-effective are new cancer drugs in the U.S.?

This seminar will offer an assessment of the average cost-effectiveness in the U.S. in 2014 of new cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during 2000-2014.

Cost-effectiveness is measured as the ratio of the impact of new cancer drugs on medical expenditure to their impact on the number of years of potential life lost due to cancer. The latter is estimated using a difference-in-difference research design, to determine whether cancers that had larger increases in the number of drugs approved had larger declines in premature mortality, controlling for the change in cancer incidence and mean age at time of diagnosis.

Estimates indicate that cancer drugs approved during 2000-2014 reduced the number of years of potential life lost before age 75 in 2014 by 719,133. Cancer drugs approved between 1989 and 2005 reduced the number of hospital days in 2013 by 1.55 million, and hospital cost in 2013 by $4.8 billion.

The baseline estimate of the cost per life-year gained in 2014 from cancer drugs approved during 2000-2014 is $7853.

Frank R. Lichtenberg is Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a member of the CESifo Research Network. He received a BA with Honours in History from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

View the full seminar invite here.

The seminar will be held in the Marlborough Room, St Ermin’s Hotel, 2 Caxton Street, London SW1H 0QW. A buffet lunch will be available from 12:00 pm. The seminar will start promptly at 12.30 pm and finish promptly at 2.00 pm.

Prior registration is required. Please click here to register.