2015年1月20日讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --如果要评选2014年最火的疗法的话，那么肿瘤免疫疗法绝对是当之无愧的No.1。许多生物医药公司都纷纷在这一领域投入巨资进行开发。而默沙东的Kevtruda和施贵宝的Opdivo作为PD-1药物疗法率先获得FDA批准用于治疗肺癌也进一步引爆该领域使其竞争达到白热化的程度。
而制药巨头辉瑞公司显然也已经坐不住了，希望在2015年能够在这一领域有所建树甚至后来居上。公司表示在努力追赶目前癌症免疫疗法研究领域潮流的同时，将重心更多的放在免疫疗法对黑色素瘤的治疗上面。辉瑞公司目前正在和默克公司进行免疫疗法治疗黑色素瘤的相关研究，并希望以此为契机，将研究范围扩大到肾癌、膀胱癌乃至目前最有利可图的肺癌研究领域。而在肺癌领域中，施贵宝公司和默沙东公司目前处于领头羊的位置。
生物医药产业分析人士认为，PD-1/PD-L1类药物的年销售峰值将达到350亿美元之多，而施贵宝公司作为这一领域的领头羊，仅在肺癌的免疫疗法治疗这一部分销售额最高就将达到73亿美元之多。
其实，辉瑞公司在很早就已经注意到了肿瘤免疫治疗的光明前景。
2014年，辉瑞公司报价1180亿美元试图收购阿斯利康公司很重要的一个原因就是希望得到其肿瘤免疫疗法研究业务，借以进入该领域后来居上。随着这一计划的流产，辉瑞公司又与德国默克公司签订了价值数十亿美元的合作研发协议共同开发肿瘤疫苗MSB0010718C，为辉瑞公司进入该领域提供了另一个契机。让我们拭目以待，看辉瑞是否能在2015年完成这华丽的逆袭。
详细英文报道：
Pfizer ($PFE) is well behind its rival titans in the race to cash in on a new class of cancer treatments. But instead of playing catch-up in skin cancer, the industry first immuno-oncology target, the drugmaker is skipping ahead to the next wave of malignancies.
As R&D chief Mikael Dolsten told Bloomberg, Pfizer and partner Merck KGaA are bypassing melanoma--"by itself ... not that large of an opportunity"--and going right for cancers of the kidney, bladder and, perhaps most lucrative, lung.
The pair's candidates, led by MSB0010718C, are designed to galvanize an immune system attack on tumors by blocking a pathway called PD-1, which, left unchecked, allows cancer cells to pass undetected by the body's natural defenses. Merck's ($MRK) Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) Opdivo became the first PD-1-blocking therapies to win FDA approval with their clearances in lung cancer, leading a group that includes AstraZeneca ($AZN) and Roche ($RHHBY), whose immunotherapies target the related PD-L1.
Merck and Bristol-Myers are now locked in a race in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) approval, posting excellent data and lining up for regulatory submissions. And Pfizer, by cutting to straight to NSCLC and other cancers, believes it can more quickly compete with its rivals.
"That's our aim, to be a company that can take part in a share of the first wave, and be among the two or three leaders in the second wave," Dolsten told Bloomberg, adding that Pfizer and Merck KGaA could launch up to 6 pivotal trials in 2015.
The whole class of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors is expected to bring in more than $35 billion a year at its peak, led by Bristol-Myers' drug, whose promise in lung cancer could send annual sales as high as $7.3 billion by 2020, according to Leerink. Each of the contenders has mounted expansive R&D campaigns, testing their therapies alone or in combination with other treatments in a host of tumor types.
Pfizer has embraced immuno-oncology in the months following its failed attempt to acquire AstraZeneca for about $118 billion, a quest driven largely by the allure of the latter company's cancer pipeline. Since then, the drugmaker has signed a slew of deals to bone up its internal efforts, including the agreement with Merck KGaA, signed in November, under which the U.S. drugmaker will pay $850 million up front and as much as $2 billion more in order to collaborate on up to 20 new cancer immunotherapies.