Cancer Immunotherapies, Potential Market Opportunity & Clinical Pipeline Insights, 2019

Cancer is referred to as a group of diseases that are characterized by abnormal cell growth. Cancer immunotherapy is a type of treating cancer, which boosts the human body's natural immune system in order to fight against the cancerous cells. This therapy is used for the cancer patients that will help by stopping the spread of cancer, by slowing down the growth of cancer cells, and by improving the natural immunity for destroying the cancer cells. Cancer has become as one of the most serious health problems faced by almost all the economies of the world. Although there have been a significant improvisation and advancements in surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy over the years, but has hardly found for significant control of this disease by these treatments. There have witnessed many developments in the recent past, in terms of introducing novel methods of treatment of cancer, which are likely to have great potential. Cancer immunotherapy is one such development in the field of cancer treatment. This treatment option involves manipulating the human body’s immune system in order to target cancer.

Market Overview

Over recent years it has witnessed the emergence of cancer immunotherapy, which has the potential for offering less toxic and more efficient therapeutic alternatives for patients. Over the past 15 years, the researchers have increased their studies about the human body’s immune system that has led to the achievement of a significant number of regulatory milestones during this period. Cancer immunotherapy has been made commercial, and the market availability of the agents has enabled the pharma companies to develop novel combination approaches, which have the capability to provide even greater insight into the body’s immune system.

With the introduction of Yervoy as one of the agents of cancer immunotherapy, it has been identified that there is a large window of opportunity for treating cancer patients successfully. It has been observed that with the use of Yervoy, in the long-term, a majority of the patients have remained free of relapse of cancer for many years. Thus, this finding has strengthened the understanding that the field of cancer immunotherapy has a disruptive potential in the future years after its complete development. Overall of about 3,863 products are being actively developed in the cancer immunotherapy pipeline, approximately half of the overall oncology pipeline. The pipeline is dominated by mAbs, cell therapies, small molecules, and cancer vaccines. The approved cancer immunotherapy drugs include Keytruda (pembrolizumab; Merck & Co.), Opdivo (nivolumab; Bristol-Myers Squibb), Provenge (Sipuleucel-T; Dendreon, now acquired by Valeant), Yervoy (ipilimumab; Bristol-Myers Squibb).

The Checkpoint Inhibitors in the cancer immunotherapies pipeline include MEDI4736 (durvalumab; AstraZeneca [MedImmune]), MPDL3280A/RG7446 (atezolizumab; Roche, Genentech), CP-675/CP-675,206 (tremelimumab, AstraZeneca). The Cancer Vaccines in the cancer immunotherapies pipeline include T-VEC (talimogene laherparepvec; Amgen [BioVex]), PROSTVAC (rilimogene galvacirepvec-rilimogene glafolivec; Bavarian Nordic, Bristol-Myers Squibb). The CD19-targeted CAR-T treatments in the cancer immunotherapies pipeline include Tisagenlecleucel-T (anti-CD19-CAR-transduced T cells; Novartis), KTE C19 (anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor transduced T cells; Kite), JCAR 014 (anti-CD19/4-1BB/zeta modified CAR CD8+ central memory and CD4+ T lymphocyte therapy; Juno Therapeutics), JCAR 017 (anti-CD19-EGFRt-4-1BB-zeta modified CAR CD8+ and CD4+ T lymphocyte therapy; Juno Therapeutics), JTCR 016 (WT1-sensitised allogeneic T-lymphocytes; Juno Therapeutics).

Patent expiry of some of the top-selling drugs in the market is challenging to develop novel drug therapeutics in cancer patients. The cancer immunotherapy development has been driven by the growth in understanding of the immune system, which acts as a hallmark of cancer pathophysiology, particularly in immune evasion of developing cancer cells and by increasing the demand for cancer monoclonal antibodies

Key Developments

• In Jan 2019, according to Advaxis, Inc., the FDA has placed a partial clinical hold on the phase III AIM2CERV trial (NCT02853604) evaluating the use of axalimogene filolisbac (AXAL) in patients with high-risk locally advanced cervical cancer.


• In Jan 2019, Juno Therapeutics intends to file BLA with the US FDA for Lisocabtagene maraleucel for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the second half of 2019.

Segmentation

This Pipeline research report segments the cancer immunotherapies pipeline on the basis of therapies employed (combination therapy, and monotherapy + combination therapy), therapeutic modality (small molecules, and unknown), RoA (oral and unknown), drugs under development (discovery, pre-clinical, phase I, phase I/II, phase II, and phase III), and recruitment status (recruiting, active not recruiting, enrolling by invitation, and undisclosed).

By application, cancer immunotherapies are targeted for treating the several types of cancer including Lung cancer, Breast cancer, Colorectal cancer, Melanoma cancer, Prostate cancer, Head & Neck cancer, melanoma, NSCLC, and ovarian cancer.

By product type, cancer immunotherapies use to treat these cancers by using the products including Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), Bispecific Monoclonal Antibodies, Cytokines, Interferons, Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Therapy, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, Dendritic Cells, Adopted Cell Therapy (ACT) & IDO Inhibitors.

The key participants in developing the cancer immunotherapies pipeline include Amgen Inc., AstraZeneca, F. Hoffman La Roche, Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Co., Merck and Co., Novartis, and Pfizer.