As BeiGene continues its quest to penetrate more deeply into the U.S. oncology drug market, the pharma has released a new survey that reveals some worrying mental health gaps when it comes to cancer care in the U.S.
Revealed at this month’s American Society of Hematology annual meeting in New Orleans, BeiGene, in collaboration with the Cancer Support Community, published its new national survey findings from “Cancer and Mental Health: The Science and Art of Whole Patient Health.”
This showed that 60% of those impacted by cancer who experienced emotional distress in the survey of 600 U.S. cancer patients were not transferred over to a mental health worker, while 1 in 5 who wanted mental health support did not get any help at all.
BeiGene also found that on top of standard meds for depression and anxiety, patients want complementary therapies.
More than half (58%) of respondents had help from a mental health professional, and just under half (48%) got specific meds for their conditions, but many wanted other services and activities including exercise (66%) and meditation classes (62%), nutrition programs (61%) and support groups (60%).
BeiGene, founded in China and which markets small-molecule BTK inhibitor Brukinsa for certain blood cancers in the U.S, is going big on mental health, and this latest survey comes just a month after it launched its “Talk About It” program is for cancer patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals, with the goal being to make mental healthcare a critical component of quality cancer care.
“The isolation, stress and access issues experienced by cancer patients point us to a truth that was already self-evident within the cancer community, which is that mental healthcare matters,” said Christiane Langer, M.D., in a press release.
The company added that in the coming months, it will be setting up new cancer and mental health advocates to “mobilize resources and share a series of patient and provider-centric initiatives designed to talk about cancer and mental health.”
These comprise digital and printed resources for patients, caregivers and HCPs and will link mental health to cancer diagnosis while also sharing tools and links to resources offered by several patient advocacy organizations.
This also comes four months after BeiGene, which has several cancer drug approvals in China but is looking to make deeper inroads in the U.S., tapped McKesson’s real-world evidence business Ontada for a series of new campaigns in the U.S. to help boost awareness of cancer drugs.