Singapore, May 13, 2009: The market for cancer treatments is one of the largest and fastest growing areas in the pharma industry. Most innovation in oncology over the past 10 years has been driven by scientific advances, particularly in the genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics sciences. Successful oncology players of the future will be those that can anticipate protocol evolution and design the most relevant clinical trials. More recently, biotech companies have been driving innovation in oncology more than ever before.  

 

Partnering with biotech companies is an important but expensive source of innovation for many pharma companies, with approximately 75% of phase II, III and pre-registration innovative drugs are of biotech origin. 'The Cancer Market Outlook to 2013' is a new report published by "Business Insights" that provides comprehensive coverage of the major markets in the global cancer area, incorporating a detailed epidemiological analysis of the nine major indications and key factors impacting their prevalence.  

 

The key findings from the report include Antineoplastic mAbs accrued sales of $11.3 billion in 2007, amassing a market share of 34.1%. The most prominent contributors to market share in this class were MabThera (32.8%), Herceptin (28.8%), Avastin (25.2%) and Erbitux (10.2%). The total antineoplastics market is forecast to be valued at $43.0 billion in 2013.  

 

The report says that Amgen's blockbuster brands Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) and Neupogen (filgrastim) dominated the immunostimulant market in 2007, with sales of $3.5 billion  and $1.4 billion respectively. Forecast sales for the immunostimulants market are estimated to reach $17.6 billion in 2013. Report noted that Roche is the leader in the global market for cancer treatments, with a market share of 34.9% (equivalent to $13 billion sales) in 2007. Roche has recently bolstered its position through portfolio expansion, with the purchase of majority stakes in both Genentech and Chugai.  

 

However, a definitive merger between Eli Lilly and ImClone will increase Eli Lilly's flow of high-quality, innovative therapies. This will enable the company to offer physicians/patients a complementary portfolio of leading agents/targeted therapies including Gemzar, Alimta & Erbitux. The report says, Pfizer has a robust R&D pipeline with eight molecules in phase II and thirteen molecules in phase I, the highest among all the top ten companies in global cancer market.