Italy faces delays in accessing new oncology drugs

While cancer mortality rates are declining across Europe, Italy faces significant bureaucratic delays in making new oncology treatments available to patients. Data presented by the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress indicates that it takes an average of 470 days for a drug approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to become prescribable in Italy.

Despite this delay, the Italian National Health Service reimburses 89% of authorized anticancer medicines, the second-highest rate in Europe after Germany. The bottleneck occurs during the transition from European approval to regional therapeutic formularies, procurement tenders, and individual hospital lists.

On a broader scale, cancer mortality in Europe is decreasing. Since 1988, prevention and new therapies have prevented approximately 7.3 million deaths. Estimates for 2026 suggest 1,230,000 deaths, representing a decrease of 7.8% for men and 5.9% for women compared to the 2020-2022 period. In Italy, approximately 390,000 new cases are estimated for 2025.