January 14, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LONDON – Research and consulting firm GlobalData anticipates the glioblastoma treatment market will increase five times from $659 million in 2014 to $3.3 billion by 2024, a 17 percent compound annual growth rate over the 10 year period.
In its latest report, GlobalData said the market increase will primarily occur due to the launch of new therapies for glioblastoma patients and will mostly be seen across the seven major markets of the United States, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Japan. GlobalData believes that current pipeline drugs offer potential solutions to this brain cancer, and has identified Bristol-Myers Squibb ’s immunotherapy Opdivo (nivolumab) as a particular contender to become the primary standard of care by 2024, replacing Genentech ’s Avastin.
However, Opdivo would have to first be approved for use in treating the brain cancer. The drug is currently undergoing a Phase III trial in combination with another BMS cancer drug, Yervoy. Opdivo is an immuno-therapy drug delivered via injection that harnesses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancerous cells. Opdivo works by inhibiting the cellular pathway known as PD-1 protein on cells that blocks the body’s immune system from attacking cancerous cells.
“Immunotherapies have shown significant efficacy in other oncology indications, and as they affect the tumor microenvironment rather than directly targeting the tumor, they make attractive candidates for glioblastoma treatments,” Maxime Bourgognon, an oncology analyst with GlobalData, said in a statement.
Bourgognon said Avastin “dominates the market” due to its ability to inhibit angiogenesis and to disrupt the blood-brain barrier, which in turn leads to tumor starvation.
“Patients refractory to the drug, however, have scant treatment options, and Opdivo addresses this,” Bourgognon said. Glioblastoma multiforme is a rare form of lethal brain cancer. According to the U.S.Centers for Disease Control, 90 percent of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme die within two years. Treatment for glioblastoma multiforme can be tricky due to the tumor cells resistance to conventional therapies, as well as the blood brain barrier, which often prevents therapies from reaching the targeted cells. Glioblastoma tumors are often called “grow-and-go tumors,” due to their rapid growth and propensity to rapidly spread to other areas. About 23,000 cases of glioblastoma diagnosed in the United States each year.
Research has shown that immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as Opdivo, hold promise in treating glioblastoma patients. While GlobalData sees Opdivo as the primary standard of care, there are several glioblastoma therapies in the pipeline of other companies, including Celldex ’s Rintega. Last year, a Phase II study of Rintega, which was granted Breakthrough Therapy Status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, showed that the patients with recurrent glioblastoma who were taking Rintega experienced six months of progression free survival as well as a reduction in the need for additional steroids. Rintega works by stimulating a major immune response in the body, spurring the body to produce more of the antibodies that help destroy tumor cells. The drug is able to reach the tumor in large part due to a porous blood-brain barrier that is found in patients with glioblastoma. That compromised blood-brain barrier allows the drug molecules to work.
