Overview

According to the WHO, cancer was the second leading cause of 2015, responsible for 8.8 million deaths globally
Global oncology drug market in 2017: $133Bln

Over the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in the treatment of cancer, driven by advances in personalized medicine and immuno-oncology. From the period of 2011 through 2016, 68 novel therapies have launched globally for the treatment of cancer.

These developments have led to improved outcomes for patients, especially for metastatic disease, and have led to an increased number of patients receiving treatment.

For physicians and payers, the influx of novel therapies and increasing use of diagnostic testing adds to the already complex treatment algorithms of many tumor types.

The global R&D pipeline for oncology remains robust with 710 late phase therapies: of the 710 molecules in late-stage development, 335, or 47% are small molecules, and 301, or 45% are biologics. The remaining types are: cytotoxics (54 molecules, or 8% of the industry’s pipeline); hormonals (17 molecules, or 2% of the pipeline); and radiotherapies (3 molecules, or 0.4% of the pipeline).