Immuno-oncology Drug Development and Personalized Medicine in 2019

A new report from data and analytics company GlobalData, “The State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry-2019,” reveals that 31% of global industry respondents believe that immuno-oncology will have the greatest impact on the pharmaceutical sector in 2019 among a range of industry trends.

“Immuno-oncology therapeutics have already been proven effective in the treatment of a range of cancers, including melanoma, kidney cancer, lymphoma, and other malignancies,” said Claire Herman, global director of Therapy Analysis and Epidemiology at GlobalData, in a Dec. 20, 2018 press release. “The pace of immuno-oncology R&D remains rapid and its scope has expanded to include combination treatment. More and more, this therapeutic approach is regarded as a potential game changer. Despite some trial disappointments in 2018, in 2019 we will see more development, more approvals, and more uptake for I-O drugs.”

More than half of survey respondents identified I-O or personalized medicine as the trend expected to have the greatest impact on the industry in 2019, which is viewed by GlobalData experts as an indicator of the optimism surrounding these new directions. Other trends, including real-world evidence, remote patient monitoring, and biosimilar uptake, were also highly rated. But ultimately, industry stakeholders believe that trends closer to the clinic will have the most transformative short-term effect.

The outlook report predicts that personalized medicine is expected to play a pivotal role in the industry during the coming year, with 19% of survey respondents identifying it as the most impactful anticipated trend. Personalized medicine spans disease areas and stands to transform not just cancer therapy, but the treatment paradigm across multiple diseases.

“Personalized medicine is revolutionizing disease treatment and patient outcomes,” Herman commented in the release. “In recent years, as the direction of drug development has shifted from a one-size-fits-all blockbuster model to a more finely targeted approach that aims to develop drugs with higher efficacy in specific patient subpopulations, new targeted drugs have begun reaching the market across multiple indications. These new drugs are overhauling the treatment paradigm.”

“While successful implementation of a personalized medicine-driven strategy requires a fundamental shift in the commercial model for most pharma companies, the investment is worthwhile,” Herman predicts. “In fact, over time, it is likely that targeted therapies will be the standard of care in a wide range of diseases.”

Source: GlobalData