A new report on the prospects of immunotherapy treatments has identified smaller, nimble biotechs and early stage companies as the single biggest factor behind the next generation of approaches in development.
The report concludes that the next five years will be the most promising in the fight against cancer with immunotherapies – such as CAR-T and moderating T-Cell approaches, and innate immunity therapies – delivering far better patient outcomes.
The Inside Perspectives: Will Immunotherapy Knock Out Cancer? report, from WuXi AppTec, predicts that over the next 10-years we will see significantly greater breakthroughs as the industry’s understanding of the immune system improves. There are currently more than 130 biotechs working on new therapies – in addition to 20 big pharmas – and it is believed the smaller companies are more aggressively bringing newer innovations to market. In the long run, pharma will undoubtedly absorb the most promising players in an effort to become leaders in combination therapy approaches, which many argue will deliver the best outcomes.
“The current investor frenzy is comparable to that of the genomics industry at the turn of the century,” said Hui Cai, VP of corporate alliances and head of communications at WuXi AppTec. “The experts we speak with argue that a more complete understanding of the genome and promise of clinical data of these transformative modalities will create a golden age for cancer therapy over the next few years.”
The report does, however, identify a number of immediate challenges. For example, CAR-T, although demonstrating good efficacy in blood cancers, has yet to show enough efficacy in solid tumors. Another challenge is how far towards cures for all patients we can get, particularly for patients with late stage metastatic cancer.
The report concludes that immunotherapies are moving cancer from treatment options that simply extend life or improve experience to more effective cures. The cost of newer therapies is also coming into focus; however, this is a positive pressure on companies to produce significant, not just incremental, outcomes for patients.
By George Underwood
Source: Pharma Times
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
