Cancer Drug Discoveries: Renal Cancer

The renal cell carcinoma (RCC) market was estimated to be worth around US$1 billion in 2006, with a growth rate of 36% YoY. It has constituted a relatively small segment of the oncology market but has more recently attracted considerable research and development investment from big pharmaceutical, biotechnology and specialty pharma companies.

The market is currently driven by the use of the following immunomodulating agents: Schering-Plough' s Intron A (interferon [IFN] alpha-2b), Roche' s Roferon-A (IFN alpha-2a) and Novartis' Proleukin (aldesleukin); with new market entrants Bayer/Onyx Pharmaceuticals' Nexavar (sorafenib) and Pfizer' s Sutent (sunitinib) making significant inroads into the market in 2006, their first year of sales.

The launch of more effective targeted agents and greater use of combination therapies instead of monotherapies, with the establishment of existing and new agents as adjuvant therapy in early-stage disease will contribute to the RCC market' s most eventful decade.

There are significant opportunities for effective new products to expand rapidly, as a large percentage of patients are currently not treated with drug therapies and are not cured by surgery alone. These patients are candidates for adjuvant therapy.

We forecast that sales of RCC treatments will increase to US$3 billion by 2009 and over US$6 billion by 2012 due to the launch of up to nine new therapies. The RCC market is in its most exciting phase of evolution!

• What are the reasons behind the expected increase in the patient population with RCC?
• What impact will the new oral agents have on a market currently dominated by injectables?
• Why is only 25% of the global RCC market in Europe?
• What are the prospects for GSK' s pazopanib and what revenue contribution might it make in 2012?
• What challenges must Novartis overcome with Proleukin and its new product everolimus if it is to maintain market presence?
• What factors are limiting Wilex' Rencarex commercialisation?