Breve 12: The "Cancer Industry" and the Pharmaceutical Policy in Germany

The following Breve provides an overview of the main challenges that societies, health care systems, and policy makers are currently facing to confront cancer. This brief analyzes the main characteristics of cancer, and shows how these influence the development of new drugs. At the same time, it looks at some of the implications for patients. It also presents some thoughts on the pharmaceutical industry related to cancer treatments. Finally, it summarizes some policy lessons emerging from the analysis, and explains why basic research, better market regulation and a stronger focus on cancer prevention should be the main priorities to fight cancer in the future.