Horror has a name: cancer. After cardiovascular diseases, tumours pose the greatest risk to human health. Some 20 million new cancer diagnoses were given in 2022, and according to forecasts by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) this figure will rise 77% to 35 million a year by 2050. The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects about one in five people to suffer cancer at some stage in their life. However, tumours have not become a problem only recently: the disease was mentioned in an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll around 5,000 years ago, and it was in antiquity that it got its name – partly because of the visual resemblance of the tumour to the aquatic animal and partly because of its characteristic persistence. While for thousands of years tumours were considered incurable, though, modern medicine is now able to counteract the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells.
The most important methods for treating cancer include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, anti-hormone therapy and innovative immunotherapy. The last of these approaches is intended to enable the body's own immune system to fight the deadly cells. First, though, the immune system has to identify the cells as “sick”. This is where checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T cell therapy can help. The leader in this field is Novartis, whose drug Kymriah is used for leukaemia. However, Roche, the world's largest manufacturer of cancer drugs, located just a few kilometres away on the opposite bank of the Rhine, is also relying on CAR-T cell therapy. To that end, the group has just agreed a billion-euro takeover. The target is US biotech firm Poseida Therapeutics, which is researching CAR-T cell therapies for various solid tumours as well as cancers of the bone marrow, lymphatic tissue and blood.
The market potential for cell-based immunotherapy is enormous. According to projections by Mordor Intelligence, the volume will climb by an average 15.5% p.a. between 2024 and 2029. The size of the global market for all cancer therapies is likewise continuing to grow. Precedence Research put it at USDbn 194.67 in 2024, but the volume is set to rise by an average 9.20% a year to reach USDbn 469.38 by 2034. While to date North America has dominated the market from a regional perspective with a share of 36%, it is reckoned that the Asia-Pacific region will enjoy the strongest growth in the future. According to the experts, the most important companies alongside the aforementioned Swiss duo Novartis and Roche currently include Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb.
In the fight against cancer the industry is also constantly on the hunt for the next game changer. mRNA could be one such. This was the technology that enabled researchers in the coronavirus pandemic to manufacture a vaccine against the virus within a very short period of time. The leading companies in this sector, such as BioNTech and Moderna, have now also set out to find mRNA vaccines against cancer. There are many products already in the pipeline now, and some could be approved before the end of this year. Moderna, for instance, is hoping to get the green light from the health authorities for its mRNA-4157 vaccine against dangerous malignant melanoma. Promising data from a trial investigating use of the vaccine in combination with an immunotherapeutic agent against malignant melanoma was published at the ASCO 2024 cancer conference in Chicago. After around three years, taking the drug together with the antibody Keytruda from Merck & Co. reduced the risk of the tumour returning and the risk of dying from it by 49%. The product is now to be launched on the market in the USA and the EU in an accelerated process in 2025.
Source: Precedence Research