The use of combination drug therapies (e.g., immunotherapies, chemotherapies and drugs having distinct mechanisms of action) for the treatment of cancer is now widespread; as well, the repositioning of FDA-approved treatments for off-label indications. While much is known about their clinical effectiveness, there exists no study of the relative cost of novel multi-drug combinations vs. monotherapies or examinations as to how knowledge about comparative therapy costs may be leveraged by doctors, health systems and payers to identify therapies that are likely to be more effective, less wasteful and a financial value. We found that
1) combination multi-drug cancer regimens are often far less expensive than traditional monotherapies,
2) novel, multi-drug combinations are often better financial values than traditional monotherapies, and
3) having treatment cost and value data, at the point of care, enables the prompt selection of more cost-effective medications and the avoidance of expensive low-value therapies that are financially wasteful.
We conclude that the effectiveness of value-based purchasing models may be amplified if providers and payers use comparative treatment cost data to augment and enhance their drug-selection decision making.
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