Immuno-Oncology (IO) development is booming across the 8MM*, with IO agents being investigated in most cancer types, in combination or alone, representing a huge commercial opportunity for established players and novel developers alike, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Chloe Thepaut, Senior Oncology Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “Developers are investigating agents across many solid tumors and blood cancers, leaving limited opportunities for developers to explore entirely new patient populations. However, opportunities remain for development in niche indications to set their IO agents apart in an increasingly crowded field.”

Thepaut continues, “Although there is no definite trend for preferred combination types, checkpoint modulators, bispecific antibodies, and oncolytic viruses are more likely to be tested and further developed as combination regimens, whereas cell therapies and cancer vaccines tend to be tested as monotherapies; there is a lot of scope for research for developers to find effective combinations.”

Thepaut concludes, “Developers with novel candidates could explore biomarker-directed development to increase potential market, as guidelines increasingly do not favor products specifically approved for a certain tumor type.”