Rising demand for innovative, efficient and advanced cancer treatments is resulting in soaring sales of oncology drugs. The market is witnessing a shift from conventional chemotherapy treatment to targeted and personalised therapy.
Conventional chemotherapy lacks specificity and affects both cancerous and normal cells, causing severe side effects. This has led to the development of innovative drugs that feature higher efficacy and reduced side effects.
Demand for targeted therapies is rising and the oncology drug market is experiencing a surge in immunotherapy adoption, driven by significant advancements and promising clinical outcomes.
Targeted therapy utilises drugs that block specific molecular pathways, helping to selectively kill cancer cells with minimal damage to normal cells.
The rise in biomarker-based drug development has enabled the identification of specific gene mutations in tumours, paving the way for personalised therapy.
Development of companion diagnostics tests to identify these biomarkers further aid in selection of suitable targeted drugs for individual patients.
A growing market
The global market for oncology drugs was valued at US$231.56 billion last year and is projected to soar to US$532.91 billion by 2031, according to Coherent Market Insights.
In Australia, the oncology drug market was valued at US$250 million in 2023, with revenue expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% from 2023 to 2030, to reach nearly US$454 million by that time.
Increased investment by key players to develop novel targeted drugs and companion diagnostics is expected to further drive the market.
The ASX features a number of highlight promising companies with a focus on oncology.
Arovella Therapeutics
Arovella Therapeutics Ltd is focused on developing its unique invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform to treat blood cancers and solid tumours.
The lead product is ALA-101, which consists of CAR19-iNKT cells modified to produce a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) that targets CD19 — an antigen found on the surface of numerous cancer types.
Arovella is also expanding into solid tumour treatment through its CLDN18.2-targeting technology licensed from Sparx Group. iNKT cells also contain an invariant T cell receptor (iTCR) that targets αGalCer bound CD1d, another antigen found on the surface of several cancer types.
ALA-101 is being developed as an allogeneic cell therapy, which means it can be given from a healthy donor to a patient.
Having recently completing a $20 share placement, the company is fully funded to complete and report on its phase 1, first-in-human clinical trial for ALA-101 in patients with CD19-positive blood cancers.
Race Oncology
Race Oncology Ltd is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a dedicated mission to be at the heart of cancer care.
Lead asset, bisantrene, is a small molecule chemotherapeutic. Bisantrene has a rich and unique clinical history with demonstrated therapeutic benefits in both adult and paediatric patients, a well characterised safety profile and compelling clinical data demonstrating an anticancer effect and less cardiotoxicity over certain anthracyclines.
Race is advancing a reformulated bisantrene (RC220) to address the high unmet needs of patients across multiple oncology indications, with a clinical focus on anthracycline combinations, where it hopes to deliver cardioprotection and enhanced anti-cancer activity in solid tumours.
The company is also exploring RC220 as a low intensity treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia.
RAC has collaborated with Astex, City of Hope, MD Anderson, Sheba City of Health, UNC School of Medicine, University of Wollongong and University of Newcastle. The company is actively exploring partnerships, licence agreements or a commercial merger and acquisition to accelerate access to bisantrene for patients with cancer across the world.
Imugene
Imugene Ltd is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing a range of new treatments that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients to identify and eradicate tumours.
The company’s pipeline includes an off-the-shelf (allogeneic) cell therapy CAR T drug azer-cel (azercabtagene zapreleucel), which targets CD19 to treat blood cancers.
Its pipeline also includes multiple immunotherapy B-cell vaccine candidates and an oncolytic virotherapy (CF33) aimed at treating a variety of cancers in combination with standard of care drugs and emerging immunotherapies such as CAR T’s for solid tumours.
Prescient Therapeutics
Prescient Therapeutics Ltd is a clinical-stage biotech company developing personalised medicine approaches to cancer, including targeted and cellular therapies.
The company’s technologies emanate from prestigious world-class centres including Yale, Penn, Oxford and Moffitt.
Prescient’s first-in-class targeted therapy – PTX-100 – is in clinical development and showing encouraging activity in diseases of unmet need. The US FDA has granted PTX-100 Orphan Drug Designation for all T-cell Lymphomas. A Phase 2 study focussing on cutaneous T-cell lymphomas is underway.
The company owns the exclusive rights to two next-generation cell therapy platform technologies, OmniCAR and CellPryme – both with the potential to enhance CAR-T therapies and overcome challenges faced by current-generation approaches.