Article
Manufacturers Providing Drugs for a Study at No Cost
Author(s):
ASCO is conducting a clinical trial to evaluate how different targeted cancer drugs work to find additional uses outside its FDA indication.
Bayer and Merck have recently signed on to provide free study drugs to patients enrolled in the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study.
There are already 18 patients receiving treatment and 31 more patients in the screening process to join the study, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), who is running the clinical trial. The study analyzes molecularly-targeted cancer drugs to collect data on clinical outcomes in order to find additional uses for drugs approved by the FDA.
TAPUR allows physicians to choose the tumor specimen/blood sample and genomic profiling test, according to ASCO. The study also uses broad criteria and streamlines data collection.
The other pharmaceutical companies involved are Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, and Pfizer. Among all of the companies, they will provide 17 drugs that have different targeted therapies for patients with advanced solid tumors, multiple myeloma, or B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The Syapse Precision Medicine Platform will be used to automate the study workflow and study drugs will be dispensed through Cardinal Health Specialty Pharmacy and will be obtained through integration with the Syapse-TAPUR application, ASCO reported.
ASCO is also planning to conduct a sub-study with the Research Advocacy Network to understand how tumor genomic testing is being used by oncologists and to assist with patient and provider education, the report concluded.
