Gambling on a cure for cancer
CANCER r emains one of the major causes of death in the developed world. One in four people are expected to die from the disease, and half of us must face up to suffering from some form of cancer during our lives.
Yet hopes for a cure – or at least a better chance of recovery – have emerged from an American cancer conference.
Hailed as a once-in-a-generation advance in treatment, so- called immunotherapies aim to harness the patient’s own immune system to help fight cancer.
It is good news for patients. The developments also have the potential to give a major boost to Britain’s quoted pharmaceutical companies. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for FTSE 100-listed Astra-Zeneca.
A central plank of the company’s strategy is to develop novel combinations of drugs that target the escape mechanisms cancers use to evade the body’s immune system.
Oncology – cancer treatment – is a key therapeutic area in which Astra has expertise and which it hopes could transform the business.
By 2020 the group is aiming to bring six new cancer medicines to patients, focusing on ovarian, lung, breast and blood cancers.
Last year when Astra was fighting off a predatory £69bn bid from US rival Pfizer, chief executive Pascal Soriot warned that one of the costs of combining the two firms could be delays to its development pipeline of potential cancer treatments.
Since the deal collapsed, inves- tors have been waiting for Astra’s share price to come nearer to the £ 55- a- share Pfizer offer. Soriot remains under pressure to justify the board’s rejection of the deal.
Immunotherapy, therefore, could be the answer.
Decision Resources Group analyst Khurram Nawaz said: ‘Cancer immunotherapy is one of the most exciting fields of research in oncology, and successful drug development in this space offers a highly lucrative opportunity for drug developers.’
Among Astra’s stable i s the MEDI4736 immunotherapy drug developed by Med-Immune, the firm’s global biologics research and development arm.
City analysts have described MEDI4736 as ‘ the great white hope’ of cancer treatments.
The company is working with US pharmaceuticals group Eli Lilly on clinical trials to test MEDI4736 in combination with ramucirumab as a treatment for patients with solid tumours.
Soriot said immuno-oncology had taken centre stage at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, and that data presented on some combination therapies at the Chicago conference was ‘truly exciting’.
Oncology is one of the biggest areas of focus for pharmaceutical companies’ research and development. The reason is that the market for treatment is potentially massive.
Cancer drugs accounted f or around $100bn (£65bn) of global sales last year, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Having seen spending on cancer medicines and supportive care rise by more than 10pc last year, the IMS also reckons it will grow by 50pc and hit $ 147bn (£96bn) by 2018.
IMS’ research has found that continued improvements in detection and treatment of cancer, earlier diagnoses and more effective drug treatments have increased the survival rates for patients. That has led to higher spending on medicines for cancer care.
Potential barriers to global success for these drugs are twofold – even if it is shown they work, immunotherapies need regulatory approval to be prescribed to patients. They are also extremely expensive, at a time when state budgets in many developed countries are under intense pressure.
Soriot has already blasted the Government after Astra’s ovarian cancer drug Olaparib was labelled too expensive for use by the NHS.
Having succeeded in finding the ‘great white hope’ of cancer treatment, manufacturers could therefore be faced with cutting their prices in order to have the drugs widely adopted. As for shareholders, the arrival of a blockbuster product can transform the fortunes of a drugs company. But bear in mind, many fall by the wayside.