Key takeaways
- Oncology Innovation is Surging, but Complexity Persists. The 2025 ASCO meeting spotlighted advances in cell and gene therapies, personalized cancer vaccines, and targeted treatments, contributing to improved survival rates. However, bringing these innovations to patients involves navigating complex regulatory, manufacturing, and commercialization pathways.
- Early Market and Regulatory Strategy is Critical for Success. Developers must engage regulatory agencies early, leverage expedited pathways (like FDA Fast Track or EMA’s PRIME), and prepare comprehensive documentation—including CMC frameworks—to reduce delays and optimize launch timelines globally.
- Demonstrating Value and Supporting Access Drives Adoption. To ensure uptake and patient access, manufacturers must articulate the clinical and economic value of therapies to payers and providers. Pre-approval engagement, real-world evidence, and tailored patient support services are essential for reducing barriers and accelerating access to oncology innovations.
The rapid pace of innovation in oncology was displayed at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, where research highlighted promising developments, including advances in immunotherapy and targeted therapies for rare cancers.
Scientific breakthroughs, including cell and gene therapies (CGT), personalized cancer vaccines, and targeted therapies, have helped to redefine approaches for certain cancers, contributing to the substantial progress achieved in five-year relative survival rates for many cancer types.
The burgeoning oncology pipeline offers the potential to help accelerate that progress. More than 100 new oncology treatments could launch over the next five years, and the number of oncology trial starts per year continues to climb—up nearly 60% over the past decade.
While the growing pipeline offers tremendous potential, the path from clinical development through to commercial launch and patient administration is complex and lined with challenges that can impact product success and access. To deliver on the promise of the therapies, developers must understand the market landscape and be prepared to overcome challenges, including those related to regulatory requirements, reimbursement, and patient access.
Navigating Diverse Regulatory Requirements
Drug development and regulatory considerations are closely intertwined, so it is imperative developers establish a robust strategy early in the clinical development process that involves engaging relevant regulatory bodies.
Proactive planning can help developers maintain compliance with global requirements, mitigate the risk of regulatory delays, and optimize the path to reach market more efficiently. For example, developers can leverage, when appropriate, mechanisms designed to facilitate a faster development process or make drugs available as quickly as possible, such as the FDA’s Priority Review, Breakthrough Therapy, Accelerated Approval, and Fast Track approaches and the EMA’s PRIME scheme. On average, the development timeline is 3.5 years faster when developers leverage one of the FDA’s expedited development or review pathways.
As part of their planning, developers should consider several key components: comparative analysis, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) framework, and master protocols. The CMC framework, for example, requires comprehensive information about the manufacturing process, validation, data control and analytical methods, underscoring the importance of thorough documentation and adherence to guidelines and precedents.
Experienced partners can help developers navigate the regulatory landscape efficiently by facilitating productive interactions with regulatory bodies, assisting in preparing and submitting regulatory documents, ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks, and supporting the design and execution of long-term follow-up studies.
Demonstrating Value: Supporting Efficient Launches and Access Globally
In the crowded oncology landscape, demonstrating a product’s clinical and economic value to key stakeholders, like payers, is critical. Developers should be to address fundamental payer questions, such as:
- Why do patients need this?
- What am I currently paying for the treatment of this disease?
- How is your drug better than the alternatives in my specific setting?
- How much is the drug worth and why is it worth the cost?
- Can I afford it and what part of my budget will I use to fund it?
- What are the consequences of not funding?
Conducting a market landscape analysis and engaging payers early allows developers to gain feedback on target product profile, evidentiary needs, and value proposition, all of which can inform critical decisions, such as clinical trial design, endpoint selection, and data collection methodologies. The communication, coupled with clinical trial results, real-world evidence, and health economic research, will help developers create a robust evidence package that showcases the product’s value and addresses questions from key stakeholders related to clinical safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness.
As part of pre-commercial planning in the United States, developers should consider engaging in pre-approval information exchange (PIE) with payers. About half of the US payers surveyed by Cencora indicated PIE impacts the timing of patient access to certain product categories, specifically oncology, products for rare diseases, and cell and gene therapies. Developers can leverage traditional and digital channels to communicate product-related information, including product and indication overview, patient use projections, clinical study results, and pricing information.
Launching oncology products efficiently in markets around the world requires local market expertise and a thorough understanding of the varying regulations and processes, including the factors that influence access, pricing and reimbursement in each market.
In Europe, companies developing oncology products and ATMPs must now adhere to Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA) process. The JCA, which went live in January as part of the EU’s new Health Technology Assessment (HTA) regulation, aims to streamline the clinical assessment of products across the member states to reduce redundancies and bring life science innovation faster to patients in Europe.
We are partnering with companies to deliver support at all stages of the EU HTA journey, from early evidence advice to post-JCA implementation at the national level. In fact, a team at Cencora is leading the development of the first tumor-agnostic dossier submission through the HTA framework.
Closing Gaps: Reducing Barriers Along the Provider Journey, Patient Experience
While advances in science have led to an influx of oncology therapies, there remain barriers that impact the use of—and access to—products.
Research published prior to ASCO found nearly three out of four oncologists find the pace of new treatment development overwhelming, and 73% believe there is a gap between the availability of new/cutting-edge treatments and their successful implementation in clinical practice. The findings underscore the importance of increasing awareness among healthcare providers and reducing potential barriers, including those related to reimbursement, that providers and patients face, which can ultimately impact access.
Developers can reduce barriers through a robust provider engagement strategy, supported by effective clinical messaging, that builds brand awareness as well as patient support program services tailored to the patient population. For example, clinical specialists can educate providers about the product’s clinical information, while field teams work closely with providers and their staff to support access and reimbursement issues for physician-administered products.
Unlocking the potential
As seen at ASCO, the oncology field is advancing rapidly, offering hope to patients worldwide. To truly realize the potential of these therapies, developers must successfully navigate the challenges along the product lifecycle and treatment journey, from early discovery and clinical development through to commercialization and post-launch.
Through strategic planning and engaging stakeholders early in the development process, developers will be better positioned to overcome challenges, accelerate time-to-market, and achieve broader market penetration, ultimately enabling more patients to benefit from these therapies. As a partner to these companies, we remain focused on delivering the support needed to advance innovation and access—helping to simplify the path to market and enable patients to receive the treatment they need.
About the Authors
Tommy Bramley, SVP of Global Consulting Services at Cencora, and Eric Monzon, SVP of Enterprise Solutions & Sales, Global Pharma Services, at Cencora.
