ANTI-BODY COUPLED T RECEPTOR THERAPY MARKET ANALYSIS

Anti-body coupled T receptor (ACTR) therapy is kind of immunotherapy used to treat cancer in which body’s own immune response is utilized to act on cancerous cell. Anti-body coupled T receptor therapy utilizes T cells from body, engineered it to express specific T cell receptor, multiplying it in lab and then administering it along with targeting antibodies. The advantage in this approach is, that these T cells do not attack normal antigens from blood circulation but attack only antigens attached to the cancerous cells. This is possible as tumor specific monoclonal antibodies are given together with ACTR T cells. ACTR therapy is cost effective as it can be used in various cancer therapy. Also, greater therapeutic benefit with minimum side effects can be possible by adjusting the amount of targeting antibody which is essential for activation of the ACTR T cells.

Rising incidence of cancer and new products to be launched in future to drive the market for anti-body coupled T receptor therapy market.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is one of the leading non-communicable disease and second leading cause of death globally. As reported by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2012, there were 14.1 million new cases, 8.8 million deaths and 32.6 million people living with cancer worldwide. As per 2017 report by Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, U.S. alone is expected to have prevalence of 8,16,834 and 80,500 annual new cases of lymphoma. Therefore, such high number of cancer patient would propel the anti-body coupled T receptor therapy market.

ACTR therapy is better in its approach than other adoptive T cell transfer technologies such as CAR-T cell therapy. CAR-T therapy products such as Kymriah (Novartis AG) or Yescarta (Gilead Lifescience, Inc.) has side effects such as cytokine release syndrome, and neurological toxicity as discussed in their respective product literatures and other studies. ACTR therapy being specific in its action do not produce such side effects. This advantage would drive the anti-body coupled T receptor therapy market in future. Also CAR-T therapy has application in specific type of cancer such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, multiple myeloma whereas ACTR therapy has potential use even in solid tumorous cancer such as breast cancer, and neuroblastoma.

Cost of product can be a major concern. Kymriah which is a CAR-T therapy costs approximately US$ 4,75,000 per patient. Considering such high cost for CAR-T therapy it can be assumed that anti-body coupled T receptor therapy can also costs on similar line as it works in same segment of immuno oncology, which may limit the potential growth of anti-body coupled T receptor therapy market.

Strategic merger and acquisition amongst the companies to expand the market for anti-body coupled T receptor therapy.

Unum Therapeutics is currently the only company that is working actively in anti-body coupled T receptor therapy. It has several product in its pipeline, and they vary based on the technology used for expression of receptor in patients T cell such as mRNA or viral vector. There is also combination of different monoclonal antibodies to be used for coupling such as rituximab, and trastuzumab. In phase one clinical trial, rituximab coupled t receptor therapy found to produce desired therapeutic effects. Seattle Genetics, Inc. and Unum Therapeutics, Inc. in 2015 entered into a strategic collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize novel antibody-coupled T-cell receptor (ACTR) therapies for cancer. This collaboration would enable study of different combination of the tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies with T receptor and cater to patient specific treatment needs.