Dive Brief:
- Over the weekend, AstraZeneca (AZ) updated enrollment data for MEDI-4736 on the National Institutes for Health's (NIH) clinical trials website.
- AZ projects potential sales of $6.5 billion for MEDI-3675.
- Merck's pembrolizumab and Bristol-Myers Squibb's nivolumab -- both for the treatment of melanoma -- are currently the lead contenders in the PD-1 immunotherapy class.
Dive Insight:
The most frequently used medications for the treatment of colorectal cancer are Erbitux (celuximab) and Avastin (bevacizumab), which target genetic subtypes of colorectal cancer. MEDI-3675 represents a completely different -- and promising -- treatment approach.
There is a distinct unmet need for new and novel cancer treatments, explaining why pharma giants AZ, Merck, Roche, and BMS are all developing four different PD-1 drugs. Immunotherapy offers a promising treatment avenue, with analysts estimating that the market for PD-1 drugs could hit $30 billion by 2019.