Cancer Drugs Poised to Improve as New Developments Help Previous Therapies Target Better - Seite 2

UNLOCKING IMMUNE CHECKPOINT INHIBITORS

As the global oncology drug market is projected to grow at a rate of 7.6% CAGR to hit $176.5 billion by 2025, there's a growing interest within the big pharma sector to tap into the power of viruses to fight cancer.

Within that market the global immune checkpoint inhibitors segment is projected to reach more than $56.5 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 20.1%—making it the fastest growing segment of immuno-oncology.

Which is why the potential for value-adding combinations for approved drugs with OVs such as pelareorep from Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (ONCY-ONC) are drawing interest from major partners.

Earlier this year, UK-based AstraZeneca PLC made a $10 million deal with France's Transgene—the first entry by AZ into the OV space since it signed a 2015 deal with Omnis Pharmaceuticals. The deal with Transgene will involve the development of five armed OVs. Transgene itself has another deal to develop a separate OV with South Korean mega giant, SillaJen.

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. recently announced the closing of a $25 million registered direct offering. Among the new therapies the company is developing, Sorrento has a clinical stage oncolytic virus known as "Seprehvir", and another future generation asset called Seprehvec.

French developers Sanofi recently invested over $90 million into German biotech company BioNTech SE. Together they are prepared to start clinical development of the first cancer immunotherapy to come from their original 2015 pact. Sanofi initially paid $60 million upfront for the rights to five discovery-stage immunotherapies. Moving forward Sanofi is set to pay up to $300 million in milestones per asset.

The co-developed asset, the most advanced of the drugs in the Sanofi pact, is made up a mixture of mRNAs that encode for immunomodulatory cytokines. While BioNTech also has a partnership in place with Pfizer, Sanofi also has a potential $805 million deal with Translate Bio to develop other mRNA drugs.

9-DIGIT INTEREST IN FIGHTING CANCER

Interest in BioNTech was on full display earlier this summer when it raised a whopping $325 million to develop individualized cancer vaccines. BioNTech is set to use the money to fuel the clinical development of the company's individualized mRNA-based immunotherapy for treating melanoma, which completed a phase I trial in 2017.