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.
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