Gregory Way, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Many approved drugs work on the body in ways that researchers still aren’t entirely clear about. Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a flaw may lead to better treatments for complex conditions.
Globally, most cancer patients die not because they don’t have access to newer drugs, but because they don’t have access to even basic treatments. Cancer groundshot aims to improve treatment access.
Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Kinases are cellular control switches. When they malfunction, they can cause cancer. The coronavirus hijacks these kinases to replicate, and cancer drugs that target them could fight COVID-19.
National drug regulators use evidence from clinical trials to decide whether new cancer drugs will be approved for use. But these studies are often flawed.
A cancer diagnosis is one of the scariest of all. The pain and fear are worsened by a confusing landscape of bills, opaque billing systems and changing insurance rules, rates and reimbursements.
Some argue the current system of subsidising drugs in Australia needs changing to accommodate new cancer therapies. But two recent drug listings show the current system is working perfectly well.
Most children who have cancer live in the developing world where their survival rate is less than 25%. In Kenya awareness about childhood cancer is low and treatment isn’t always readily available.
Imagine being able to offer hope to people with cancers once thought untreatable. Checkpoint immune drugs like Opdivo and Keytruda lead this new era in treatment. But they don’t work for everyone.
Nanoparticles are a form of transport for drugs and can go places drugs wouldn’t be able to go on their own. They make drug delivery more targeted, reducing collateral damage to healthy tissues.
Intuitively, it might seem desirable to speed up access to medicines. But this means more drugs will be approved that may subsequently prove unsafe or ineffective.
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney