BC Cancer, CPHIN and Roche Canada will co-create an evidence-generating framework to leverage real-world data and facilitate cost-effective access to targeted treatments for cancer patients
Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada) is pleased to announce a joint initiative with BC Cancer and the Canadian Personalized Healthcare Innovation Network (CPHIN) to co-create a real-world evidence (RWE) framework in British Columbia known as the PRecision Oncology Evidence Development in Cancer Treatment (PREDiCT). The PREDiCT initiative will generate and assess RWE, which may be used to help shape new sustainable reimbursement pathways for personalized cancer treatments.
This initiative marks a leading public-private collaboration in personalized healthcare in Canada and, if proven successful, represents an important milestone towards a healthcare system that leverages real-world and clinical trial data to provide the right care options for patients and inform policies that ensure cost-effective access.
The standard process for reimbursing cancer medicine is based on cost-effectiveness evaluations, and safety and efficacy data largely collected through clinical trials. However, RWE is becoming increasingly important to fill gaps in this data and capture insights throughout a patient’s whole journey that can help guide clinical and reimbursement decision making. The demand for RWE by regulatory and reimbursement health authorities continues to grow, particularly for personalized cancer therapies that target rare mutations where traditional clinical trial evidence may be limited. The PREDiCT initiative aims to create a real-world data evidence-generation framework and elevate the use of RWE in informing healthcare decision-makers. The results could provide a new path forward for innovative therapies that may not fit the traditional reimbursement pathway – a critical step in ensuring cost-effective access to personalized cancer care for patients.
“PREDiCT has the potential to evolve the way health authorities and policy-makers interpret and use RWE in oncology decision-making, and potentially increase the number of targeted treatment options available to cancer patients across British Columbia, and eventually Canada,” says Ronnie Miller, President and CEO, Roche Pharmaceuticals Canada. “In working together with BC Cancer and CPHIN, we can drive sustainable healthcare transformation leading to greater personalized care and better health, at a lower cost, for people and society.”
“The core hope of PREDiCT is to change the BC Cancer healthcare data ecosystem and the way we make decisions,” says Dr. Dean Regier, senior scientist, BC Cancer and PREDiCT co-principal investigator. “This initiative is moving forward with the intent of operationalizing learning healthcare systems for life cycle health technology assessment, with a view to generate real-world evidence to make better informed decisions about treatment efficacy, patient value, and cost-effectiveness.”
The PREDiCT initiative also aims to generate and validate high-quality real-world data that examines the impact and value of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) to identify potential cancer mutations. “PREDiCT presents a great opportunity for BC Cancer to upgrade its molecular diagnostic offering to benefit more patients with clinically actionable information,” explains Dr. Stephen Yip, pathologist, BC Cancer and PREDiCT co-principal investigator. “The improvement to the logistical and technical infrastructure of BC Cancer laboratories will accelerate the wider adoption of advanced genomic profiling in patients.”
“The advantage of PREDiCT is that it enables generation of RWE for decision-making while prioritizing patient treatment and access to therapy,” states Dr. Cheryl Ho, medical oncologist, BC Cancer and PREDiCT co-principal investigator. “This is an opportunity to facilitate access to a more personalized level of care for our patients with the longer-term vision of generating data that will help inform decision-makers,” adds Dr. Howard Lim, medical oncologist, BC Cancer and PREDiCT co-principal investigator.
PREDiCT will initially be piloted at BC Cancer centres and CPHIN will convene healthcare partners to facilitate cross-provincial learning and scale the program beyond British Columbia. The ultimate goal is integrating a national framework to enable a more streamlined approach for patient access to cost-effective innovative treatments and technologies across many disease areas.
“Real-world evidence holds the potential to demonstrate how targeted treatments can improve patient care and clinical outcomes, but the current approach to leveraging RWE is fragmented and untapped,” says Dr. Helen Chen, President, CPHIN. “Through this public-private partnership, PREDiCT paves the way for Canada-wide use of RWE at the healthcare decision-making level and unlock data insights that could lead to better patient outcomes.”