New drugs are crucially needed for children with cancer. The European Paediatric Regulation facilitates paediatric class waivers for drugs developed for diseases only occurring in adults. In this Review, we retrospectively searched oncology drugs that were class waivered between June, 2012, and June, 2015. 147 oncology class waivers were confirmed for 89 drugs. Mechanisms of action were then assessed as potential paediatric therapeutic targets by both a literature search and an expert review. 48 (54%) of the 89 class-waivered drugs had a mechanisms of action warranting paediatric development. Two (2%) class-waivered drugs were considered not relevant and 16 (18%) required further data. In light of these results, we propose five initiatives: an aggregated database of paediatric biological tumour drug targets; molecular profiling of all paediatric tumours at diagnosis and relapse; a joint academic-pharmaceutical industry preclinical platform to help analyse the activity of new drugs (Innovative Therapy for Children with Cancer Paediatric Preclinical Proof-of-Concept Platform); paediatric strategy forums; and the suppression of article 11b of the European Paediatric Regulation, which allows product-specific waivers on the grounds that the associated condition does not occur in children. These initiatives and a mechanism of action-based approach to drug development will accelerate the delivery of new therapeutic drugs for front-line therapy for those children who have unmet medical needs.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
4
6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
4
6%
Computer Science
2
3%
Other
8
13%
Unknown
18
29%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 February 2018.
All research outputs
#3,200,334
of 34,609,551 outputs
Outputs from Lancet Oncology
#2,936
of 8,020 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#43,963
of 360,980 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Lancet Oncology
#54
of 146 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,609,551 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,020 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 360,980 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 146 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.
