(Source: The Pharma Letter 2014-4-07)
Blood cancer drugs represent a growth opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry over the next few years, Moodys Investors Service says in a new report, titled Blood Cancer Breakthroughs Will Benefit J&J, Roche and Others. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation to several new pipeline drugs to treat these cancers, and two have already been approved.
“New revenue opportunities from blood cancer drugs are large, and many are incremental,” says Moody’s senior vice president, Michael Levesque, adding: “We believe the biggest opportunities are in treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma.”
For chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), new treatments represent significant improvements over existing ones, Mr Levesque says, and many patients will exhaust multiple therapies and combinations, leading to incremental sales. At the same time, declines in existing products will be limited, since treatment regimens often combine old and new compounds. And several compounds for the treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) are either filed or in phase III trials, expanding treatment options for these patients.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Roche (ROG: SIX) and Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) are poised to benefit the most from emerging drugs to treat CLL and NHL, according to Mr Levesque, who says: “We estimate the incremental markets for each to be in the multi-billion dollars.”
J&J’s Imbruvica (ibrutinib) will be among the biggest products in blood cancer treatments, and has recently been approved for CLL, while Roche/Biogen Idecs Gazyva (obinutuzumab) could eventually more than replace its lucrative but mature Rituxan(rituximab) franchise, a primary target of biosimilar competition. And Gileads idelalisib could be approved as early as August this year for relapsed CLL patients, representing a growth opportunity and base for the companys growing oncology focus.
Other opportunities exist in multiple myeloma, to the benefit of particularly Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) and Amgen (Nasdaq: CELG). Celgenes Revlimid (lenalidomide) is a standard therapy for most multiple myeloma treatments. By next year its usage may expand to include newly diagnosed patients, driving incremental growth, especially in Europe. And Celgenes Pomalyst(pomalidomide) and Amgens Kyprolis (carfilzomib) will compete head to head and share growth in their approved third line setting. If clinical trials are successful, usage of Kyprolis may also expand, providing new sources of growth, the report noted.
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