COVID-19 Impact on Blood Cancer Drug in Pharmaceutical Industry | DBMR

Posted by Rajesh M on April 27th, 2021

COVID-19 Impact on Blood Cancer Drug in Pharmaceutical Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted different sectors of the pharmaceutical industry at distinct levels. The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the world as well the need to maintain social distancing has deeply impacted the manufacturing and distribution intensive industries including the pharmaceutical industry.

Cancer researchers and oncologists should be curious or terrified because patients are suffering from any type of cancer are at a higher risk for bad outcomes. This is because of their immunity is very low due to taking cancer treatment and chemotherapy.

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the blood cancer drug testing is varying depending on the number of COVID-19 cases & cancer cases in the area. Areas with fewer cases of COVID-19 are striving to continue cancer clinical trials and hence, the blood cancer drug market may not be greatly affected in these areas. In these places, new patients are still joining trials and patients are still getting treatment.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON DEMAND OF TREATMENT

The overall demand will be modestly impacted across the blood cancer drug market in the short-term. Hospitals and oncology centers across the country have suffered economic downsides from the elimination of non-emergency or non-urgent care. As the rate of recovery of COVID-19 cases is increasing, clinical trial institutes are planning to restart regular enrolment.

The role of blood cancer drug is pivotal in cancer treatment areas that experience significantly high demand and receive the necessary funding. The position of blood cancer drug is essential which is leading to almost unchanged demand during the pandemic. Guidelines are available stating how clinicians & researchers should proceed for processes in cancer clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the patients will only be treated by the physicians and nurses on the specific study teams to reduce the risk of infection. However, this might lead to patients travelling long distances several times a month for routine consultations. This reduces the potential number of patients to those who can afford frequent trips to the site or paid stay near the site. The guidelines also include other considerations such as implementing COVID-19 screening procedures implementing COVID-19 screening procedures, delaying recruitment, expediting changes in trial protocol amongst others.

However, the aforementioned nonbinding guidelines have led to every organization developing its own priorities as most of the staff is focused on handling the COVID-19 crisis. On the other hand, several organizations believed that being on a clinical trial is the most important recommendation for treatment, and they want to continue conducting clinical trials for a number of reasons. This is because clinical trials are no longer the last-ditch effort but are considered to be the best chances for patients to get cured as they have specific enrolment criteria to match the specific type of cancer and its treatment that has been designed for that defect or malignancy. Hence, they consider clinical trial to be the best option especially in oncology cancer, and they want to continue as long as it’s safe and feasible.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ROUTINE CONSULTATIONS

As the patients are afraid for getting infected with the COVID-19 infection ongoing care treatment also affected. For instance; primary care providers who offer or use face to face guidance or appointments has been reduced, with switching daily services on telecommunication/tele- consultations unless an in-person consultation is deemed essential. Moreover, the psychological stress in patients receiving a diagnosis and treatment for cancer will be increased in current

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