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American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 05/11/2017

Eli Lilly Announces Additional Vial Size to Minimize Waste

Eli Lilly analysis leads to introduction of new vial size.

Eli Lilly has released a retrospective study of real-world patient weight and BSA data in several cancer types, with the aim of reducing waste from discarded drug that is dosed based on body size. As a case study, the researchers used the dataset to determine the most efficient, and least wasteful, vial size of olaratumab in soft tissue sarcoma. The authors found that waste from discarded drug could be reduced by 87.6% with the introduction of a 190mg vial size, in addition to the existing 500mg vial. The company has since announced the introduction of the 190mg vial of olaratumab to market.

The study followed an analysis conducted by The Drug Pricing Lab, which found that drug companies earned approximately $1.8bn from discarded cancer drugs in the United States in 2016.

Read the study here.

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