The Coming Wave of New Cancer-Fighting Drugs!

The treatments, known broadly as immunotherapies or immune-oncology, fall into two major categories, drugs that help take the brakes off the immune response, going after solid tumors like melanoma and lung cancer, and customized treatments that modify immune cells to combat blood malignancies.
“I think 2015 is the end of the beginning in the story of immunotherapy,” said Michael Giordano, head of development of oncology and immunology at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. “2015 will be a pivot point where I-O will be mainstreamed beyond melanoma and we’ll start seeing it approved and used in large tumors.”
There are 374 experimental cancer drugs in mid-stage trials, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics’ global outlook report published last year. That’s more than twice as many drugs as for nervous system disorders, for example. Of the experimental cancer drugs, about 25 percent to 30 percent are immunotherapies, according to IMS.
In trials, Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers’ drugs showed long-lasting effects in some patients that oncologists have called dramatic.
There a huge unmet medical need from patients, for whom many new treatments extend lives by years, rather than months. And the financial reward for drugmakers is huge. The drugs have annual costs of $150,000, and a slate of personalized treatments are expected to carry even higher price tags.

There is a surge in the stocks in this field. Kite Pharma Inc., Juno Therapeutics Inc. and Bluebird Bio Inc. have gathered interest from investors for their therapies to modify the immune system cells and retrain them to attack blood cancers, a technique known as CAR. Kite and Bluebird rose more than fourfold in the last year, while Juno’s shares have more than doubled since their initial public offering last month. All three companies are scheduled to present at the JPMorgan Health Care Conference in San Francisco next week.
Kite plans to file for regulatory approval for its treatment by end of 2016, according to spokesman Justin Jackson. Juno plans to file an application by late 2016 or early 2017, according to company filings.
Bristol-Myers and Merck, meanwhile, are racing to expand their drugs beyond melanoma. They expect approvals in lung cancer this year, and are testing on a wide range of solid tumors.