Background paper was written, malignant tumours were
responsible for 12% of the nearly 56 million deaths worldwide from all causes and over 6
million died specifically from some type of malignant tumour. Indeed, cancer had emerged
as a major public health problem in developing countries, matching its effect in
industrialized nations. In the European Union (EU) at that time, lung cancer was the
principal cause of death in men (25% of all male cancer deaths) followed by colorectal and
prostate cancers. In women, the three major causes of death were breast cancer (16% of all
female deaths), colorectal (12%) and lung cancer (9%).
At that time, there was a large and dynamic pipeline of products. Further, at that time, the
distribution of therapeutics in clinical trials across cancer types seems to correlate with the
incidence of those cancer types reasonably well, suggesting that the pharmaceutical industry
is appropriately matching its resources to the size of the market. The European Union did
not match the private or public funding levels of the United States with regard to cancer
therapeutic research and development.