The number of immuno-oncology (IO) therapies in clinical development and volume of clinical investigations testing these therapies for the treatment of cancer patients continue to grow, and will undoubtedly fulfill unmet needs in both hematological cancers and solid tumors over the next five to ten years.

Leveraging data from GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence platform, an Immuno-oncology Landscape update from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) [Yu et al. Immuno-oncology drug development goes global. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, September 2019], highlights the rapid growth and diversity in the preclinical and clinical landscape of IO therapies with 91% growth as compared to the data published in 2017. The largest increase is observed in the development of cellular therapies in the past two years.

Both the degree of granularity and breadth of IO data from GlobalData with analysis by CRI revealed that although CD19, PD-1, and PD-L1 are the top three targets for IO therapies, the agents targeting CD19 has shown the fastest growth in the past two years. Revati Tatake, Global Director of Databases and Analytics at GlobalData, commented, “GlobalData believes that the largest increase in new targets of T cell immunomodulators, other immunomodulators and cell therapies besides CD19  is indicative of continuous innovation in developing novel IO therapies.”

The analysis revealed that the United States leads in the development of all classes of IO therapies combined, while China is in second place with predominantly cell therapies among the overall IO therapies. Tatake continued, ‘‘It is possible that the geographic differences, especially in the cell therapy landscape may be due to different regulatory requirements for these drugs.’’

On a global level, the overall number of trials for all adoptive cell therapeutics are fewer in comparison to trials for immune checkpoint inhibitors and other IO therapies, but rapid growth in clinical investigations for adoptive cell therapies in particular was seen after 2015.

“The Cancer Research Institute brings to its analyses of the global immuno-oncology landscape deep knowledge of the field curated over more than six decades of funding research in immunology and tumor immunology, which is informed by CRI’s international network of more than 90 leading physician-scientists in the vanguard of this new approach to cancer treatment,” said Vanessa Lucey-Hubbard, Ph.D., MBA, Director of the CRI Anna-Maria Clinical Accelerator and Venture Fund and co-author of the immuno-oncology landscape publication.

Analyses of the development landscape such as that provided by CRI using the data from GlobalData may assist pharmaceutical companies in planning their pipeline strategies and lead to productive partnerships in the further development and commercialization of these valuable cancer therapies.