Access to innovative medicines increasingly delayed in LATAM, says study

The waiting time for Latin American patients with cancer, central nervous system disorders or rare diseases can take up to 4.75 years from the time a drug receives approval from global health authorities such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA), until it is approved by their local authority and is available on the market, writes The Pharma Letter's local correspondent.

This is the main conclusion of the third version of the Waiting to Access Innovative Therapies (WAIT) Indicator 2024 for Latin America, from the Latin American Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Fifarma), which compiles information from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

Instead of improving, times are getting worse. The first report found there was a waiting time of between 541 days and 1,500 days, that is, from a year and a half to almost four years. Today, for example, if a patient in Latin America requires an innovative cancer treatment and it received regulatory approval in the USA last month, it could be available in Latin American health systems, in a limited or complete way, in August 2029 on average.