Cancer remains the dominant disease target for biotech through to 2010

Abstract

The two leading therapeutic areas for biological products, in terms of current sales and pipeline focus, are oncology and AIID (arthritis, immune and inflammatory disorders). Datamonitor’s biotechnology strategic market analysis team recently analysed the AIID market, since this sector is currently powering biotechnology market growth, owing to high demand for biologicals to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis (Belsey, M. and Churchill, C. (2006) ‘Autoimmune and inflammatory disorder biologicals will power biotech market growth through to 2010’, J. Comm. Biotechnol., Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 237‐241). In the current paper, we have analysed the oncology market, since biologicals designed to treat cancer indications have underpinned the development of the biotechnology market since its inception in the 1980s. Biological products treat a wide variety of cancers, of which the most prevalent are the ‘big four’ tumour types ‐ breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. In terms of technology focus, both monoclonal antibody therapeutics and recombinant proteins are set to drive cancer biological market growth. Key growth drivers include mainly Genentech and Roche products, such as Avastin (bevacizumab), Rituxan (rituximab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab), as well as Amgen products, including the second-generation recombinant proteins Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) and Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa). Across the major pharmaceutical markets, oncology biologicals generated US$10.7bn in 2004 (based on company-reported data), which Datamonitor forecasts to rise to US$29.0bn by 2010.