Despite the promise of oral drugs for treating cancer, high costs and the burden of taking multiple medications drive 10% of patients prescribed the drugs not to fill their initial prescriptions, according to a new study published in the Journal of Oncology Practice and the American Journal of Managed Care. Healthcare research firm Avalere Health conducted the study, “Patient and Plan Characteristics Affecting Abandonment of Oral Oncolytic Prescriptions,” by examining pharmacy transaction data on 10,508 patients from between 2007 and 2009, and will present results of the study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting next month.
