Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘Prostvac-VF’

Prostate Cancer Market to expand from $1B to $5B by 2015

Launch of Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) at 2011 annual meeting of American Urological Association (AUA) in Washington DCThe market for prostate cancer therapies is set to expand from $1 billion currently to $5 billion by 2015, according to analysts reported by this morning’s Washington Post/Bloomberg news.  This is perhaps no surprise given the recent approval of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®) from Ortho Biotech (JNJ).

New clinical data on prostate cancer clinical trial results is expected at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago this weekend from many of the prostate cancer therapies in development such as MDV3100, TAK700, ARN-509, cabozantinib (XL184), ipilimumab, custirsen (OGX-11), BPX-101, alpharadin, denosumab (Xgeva®) and Prostvac-VF.

Indeed, one could argue that prostate cancer is becoming a competitive marketplace.  Any emerging biotechnology company that is not already developing a prostate cancer drug is likely to find it a hard market in which to create a blockbuster.  By the time any drug comes to market, there will be incumbents with effective products who have captured market share.

Prostate cancer is an exciting market to watch from a marketing strategy and patient perspective, as several companies potentially bring new products to market over the next few years.

However, the bottom line is that patients will live longer as a result of all the innovation that is taking place.  Not only that but physician education and awareness of how to treat this disease is also likely to improve as they seek out knowledge on new therapies and treatments.  This to many will make a major difference.  At the recent American Urological Association (AUA) annual meeting, the sessions on treatment of prostate cancer were standing room only.  There is clearly a demand for knowledge out there as the treatment paradigms change.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is also innovation taking place in terms of improved diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.  Whether we should screen all men for PSA remains a controversial topic, although use of risk calculators do appear to offer less false positives.  Indeed, calculating risk is going to be one of the key areas that primary care physicians and urologists need to focus on, particularly in the light of the PIVOT trial data that was presented at AUA, showing radical prostatectomy (with risks including incontinence and erectile dysfunction) was not better than watchful waiting in low-risk, early stage disease.

However, a presentation I am looking forward to at ASCO 2011 is on circulating tumor cells (CTC) and whether these can be a prognostic or even a predictive biomarker.   Both the phase III MDV3100 and abiraterone acetate clinical trials captured CTC data.  It will be exciting news at ASCO 2011 if circulating tumor cells that require only a blood sample offer an improvement over PSA not only for detection of prostate cancer, but in monitoring the disease over time.

I will be at ASCO 2011 this weekend, and look forward to writing more on prostate cancer from the conference!

AUA 2011 New Prostate Cancer products in development beyond the androgen axis

There is a lot of focus at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) here in Washington DC on metastatic castrate resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC), and the recently FDA approved adrenal steroid inhibitor, abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®).

Drugs in development that target the androgen receptor, such as MDV3100, are also generating a lot of interest from urologists.

However, Oliver Sartor (Tulane) in the Saturday morning satellite symposia that I attended, focused on emerging therapies in CRPC, beyond the androgen axis. His hypothesis:

“Cancers are devious and some of the mechanisms of AR activation appear to be ligand-independent and resistant to all current androgen-axis targeted therapies.”

What this means is that focusing on adrenal steroid inhibition or blocking the androgen receptor may not be sufficient to prevent disease progression. If we are looking for a Prostate Cancer cure, then will it take multiple drugs, including those that target various stromal sites? That is the intriguing question that Sartor raised.

Indeed, if there is one take home from this meeting, it is that the “desert” of prostate cancer therapies has now blossomed into a multiplicity of potential new therapies and development, which will mean that urologists and oncologists will soon be spoilt for choice as abiraterone and MDV3100 are not the end of the story.

Sartor highlighted some interesting ones on the horizon to watch out for:

Alpharadin: This is a bone targeted therapy that uses radioactive Radium 223 to kill cancer cells. It is being developed by Norwegian company, Algeta in partnership with Bayer Schering Pharma AG. The 900 patient phase III trial completed accrual earlier this year in Jan 2011. Phase II data was published in the Lancet in 2007 by Nilsson et al. Data from alpharadin will be “coming soon” according to Sartor.

XL-184 (cabozantinib): Activated MET is highly expressed in prostate bone metastases. Exelixis XL-184 is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that specifically inhibits both MET and VEGFR2.

Data from a phase 2 study of XL-184 in castrate resistance patients was presented last year at the EORTC-AACR-NCI Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin by David Smith et al (Abstract 406).

Both XL-184 and alpharadin would be potential competitors to Amgen’s denosumab (Xgeva®).

Other new products in development “Beyond the Androgen Axis” that Dr. Sartor mentioned included Prostvac-VF, BPX-101 and ipilimumab. A phase III trial of ipilimumab, both pre- and post- docetaxel is now underway in mCRPC. A phase III trial of Prostvac-VF will start later this year with 1200 patients in a placebo controlled study with minimally symptomatic, castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer patients.

Over the next few years a lot of data may emerge on exciting new treatment options. Coupled with the basic research that is going on, tremendous progress in the treatment of Prostate Cancer is already taking place.

According to Sartor “multiple drugs will be necessary to cure mCRPC and that is our greatest challenge today.” Major progress is now being made towards this.

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