Cancer Drug Discoveries: what the future holds: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Chapter

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the leading causes of death, resulting in the worst survival rates for all cancers and killing more patients than breast, colon and prostate cancer together, accounting for nearly 30% of all cancer deaths. According to the WHO, NSCLC affects more than 1.2 million patients a year, with around 1.1 million deaths annually and around 500,000 in the US, Europe and Japan.

The NSCLC market was estimated to be worth US$3.7 billion in 2006 with a growth rate of 14% YoY. According to PhRMA it is one of the most actively researched cancers with nearly 100 drugs in the US being evaluated in clinical trials during 2006.

As researchers begin to understand the processes involved in NSCLC formation several new targeted therapies have evolved which modulate growth factor pathways. Two small-molecular tyrosine kinase inhibitors, Iressa (AstraZeneca) and Tarceva (Roche/Genentech/OSI Pharmaceuticals), and the anti-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor, Avastin (Roche/Genentech/Chugai), are gaining credence in third-line therapy and are beginning to migrate to second-line therapy.

By 2012, we anticipate at least four new chemotherapeutic agents will be launched including sanofi-aventis’ Eloxatin, Hana Biosciences’ Talvesta, Cell Therapeutics/Novartis’ Xyotax and AstraZeneca/Abraxis BioScience's Abraxane. These may have been approved to be used in combination with existing treatment protocols and in some cases may replace older products.

CURRENT PRODUCTS EVALUATED AND FORECAST

CHEMOTHERAPY

• Taxotere (sanofi-aventis)
• Taxol (BMS)
• Navelbine (GSK)
• Gemzar (Eli Lilly)
• Alimta (Eli Lilly)

TARGETED THERAPIES

• Iressa (AstraZeneca)
• Tarceva (Roche/Genentech)
• Avastin (Roche/Genentech/Chugai)

UP AND COMING PRODUCTS EVALUATED

PHASE III

• Recentin (AstraZeneca)
• Eloxatin (sanofi-aventis)
• Erbitux (BMS/Merck Serono/ImClone Systems)
• PF-3,512,676 (Pfizer/Coley Pharmaceutical)
• Stimuvax (Merck Serono/ Biomira)
• Talabostat (Point Therapeutics)
• Xyotax (Novartis/Chugai/Cell Therapeutics)
• Zactima (AstraZeneca)

PHASE II

• Abraxane (AstraZeneca/
• Abraxis BioScience)
• EP-2101 (IDM Pharma)
• Matuzumab (Merck Serono/ Takeda)
• Onconase (Alfacell)
• Satraplatin (GPC Biotech/Pharmion/Spectrum Pharmaceuticals)
• Talvesta (Hana Biosciences)
• TG4010 (Transgene)
• ¨ Velcade (J&J/Millennium Pharmaceuticals).