The market for T-Cell Lymphomas (TCLs) – a rare type of the blood cancer group of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas – is expected to see strong growth at a 6.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next decade in the world’s eight major markets (8MM*) due to numerous drugs in late-stage clinical trials, according to GlobalData. However, the leading data and analytics company notes that this growth would have been a lot higher if there was a more industrial focus on the relatively neglected cutaneous TCL subtype.

According to GlobalData’s latest report, ‘T-Cell Lymphomas Market Size and Trend Report including Epidemiology and Pipeline Analysis, Competitor Assessment, Unmet Needs, Clinical Trial Strategies and Forecast, 2020-2030’, TCL is divided into over 20 subtypes, which can have dramatically different treatment responses. GlobalData projects that 14 pipeline agents are well-placed to receive marketing authorization in the 8MM within the next decade, the most important of which are Affimed’s AFM-13, Secura Bio’s Copiktra, and Junshi Bio’s Tuoyi.

Sakis Paliouras, PhD, Managing Oncology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The most groundbreaking development in the treatment of patients with TCL has been the anti-CD30 antibody-drug conjugate Adcetris, which has led to a high number of cures in patients with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma and a longer remission time in the more difficult to treat subtypes such as peripheral TCL. As such, GlobalData estimates that Seagen/Takeda have been rewarded with over $400 million in Adcetris’ sales in 2020 in the TCL space alone, despite the rarity of the disease. However, AFM-13, with its bispecific capability, validated target, and promising early phase clinical data, has the potential to challenge Adcetris and achieve commercial success, with $184 million forecasted in peak sales.”

Most of the highest-grossing agents in TCL will go off-patent during the forecast period and experience substantial generic/biosimilar erosion, especially easy-to-manufacture compounds such as Folotyn and Istodax. This will negatively affect market growth, which could have been substantially higher given the large number of late-stage pipeline drugs. GlobalData forecasts that the TCLs market will grow from $956 million in 2020 to $1.8 billion in 2030 across the 8MM.

Paliouras adds: “Key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData believe that among the most important unmet needs are better systemic treatment for cutaneous TCL, given that none of the current options are particularly effective. EU-based KOLs have raised complaints about the disparity in the availability of cutaneous TCL treatments between the EU and the US, especially the complete lack of histone deacetylase inhibitors, a drug class that is a staple of TCL treatment, in the EU. Another important unmet need is peripheral TCL patients that are refractory to initial treatment or relapse after a while and are viewed as very difficult to treat.

“Despite the extent of the TCL pipeline, these unmet needs are expected to remain largely unaddressed over the next decade.”

*8MM = US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, and China