Immuno-oncology: Focus on Developments and Opportunities in Immune Checkpoint Modulators

Immuno-oncology: Focus on Developments and Opportunities in Immune Checkpoint Modulators

Summary

Immuno-oncology (IO) is the study and development of specialized treatments or immunotherapies for cancer to overcome the immune evasion mechanisms and to stimulate and enhance the immune system’s combat against cancer cells.

This report focuses on immune checkpoint modulators and provides an overview of the current and emerging key products and players within the 8MM (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, US, Japan, China), main unmet needs; R&D challenges, strategies and opportunities; and clinical development trends. The report also includes competitive analysis of marketed products and a tabular analysis of key checkpoint targets and indications investigated in clinical trials. In addition, the report also provides an overview and critical assessment of the future landscape including bispecific antibodies, predictive/prognostic biomarkers and microbiome.

Key Highlights

• Although ICIs work in some tumors such as lung cancer and melanoma, the majority of cancers fail to respond to ICIs, mainly due to various tumor- and immune-related factors.
• These tumor types are refractory, benefitting the least from available therapies. Remission rates in all tumors are high, which can result in secondary resistance to ICIs.
• The understanding of endogenous resistance mechanisms is poor and ICI monotherapy has not been able to overcome issues related to secondary resistance.
• None of the current biomarkers used in development and in clinical practice are sensitive or accurate enough.
• Without robust predictive/prognostic biomarkers, it is difficult to execute effective patient segmentation in clinical trials, match the best drugs for combination therapies, or predict and proactively manage side effects that might arise due to a treatment.
• Lack of robust, predictive biomarkers creates a bottleneck for companies to develop safer and effective therapies for both small subsets of patients as well as for common tumors.
• Current research in novel checkpoint targets provides possible rationale for addressing primary and secondary resistance in some tumor types.
• In addition to immunotherapy combinations, companies are investigating targeted therapies as possible additions to ICI-based combinations to increase response rates in tumors with known mutations and genetic aberrations.
• In the future, with emerging pharmacological and immune biomarkers, GlobalData expects numerous doublet and triplet combination therapies to appear in all lines of treatment.

• What are the main types of immune checkpoint modulators?
• What are the key marketed products and agents in development in the 8MM?
• What are the key checkpoint targets and indications that are being investigated?
• What are the main unmet needs in immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)?
• What are the main R&D challenges and strategies in ICIs?
• What development trends exist or are anticipated in ICI-based therapies?
• What are the opportunities in biomarker development and microbiome studies?

• Quotes from 10 US-, 5EU-, and Japan-based key opinion leaders
• Robust analysis of high-prescriber survey conducted with 94 oncologists
• Summary of main types of immune checkpoint modulators
• Competitive Analysis of key marketed/pipeline products in 8MM
• Overview and critical analysis of main unmet needs, R&D challenges and strategies.
• Overview and analysis of development opportunities in current and emerging clinical targets, and novel combinations across key indications.
• Overview of biomarker technologies and microbiome
• Call-outs of key information and details
• Insight from GlobalData’s specialist oncology analysts

• Develop business strategies by understanding the trends shaping and driving ICI-based therapies in the 8MM.
• Drive revenues by understanding the key trends, innovative combination strategies and indications likely to impact the utility of immune checkpoint modulators in the future.
• Design your development strategy through a review of potential novel targets or combinations across indications.
• Understand the challenges and strategies impacting the development of immune checkpoint modulators in preclinical studies and clinical trials.
• Organize your sales and marketing efforts by understanding ICI-based combination approaches across indications that present maximum opportunities for consolidations, investments, and strategic partnerships.
• Develop strategies by understanding expert perceptions of unmet needs in key indications in oncology, and the potential for immune checkpoint modulators to meet those needs.