Market Challenges And Opportunities

Polymer-drug Conjugates Market Restraint

Limited use of polymer-drug conjugates is expected to restrain growth of the polymer-drug conjugates market. For instance, according to an article published in Bioengineering and Translational Medicine 2016, polymer-drug conjugates are formed by covalent linkage between the drug and polymer and not all of the drugs have chemical functional groups for covalent conjugation. Moreover, they offer triggered drug release only at the tumor tissue or cell.

Lack of standard and optimized preclinical or clinical protocols to evaluate polymer-drug conjugate stability, tumor penetration, metabolism, and toxicity are hindering growth of the polymer-drug conjugates market.

Polymer-drug Conjugates Market Driver

New pipeline drugs developed using polymer-drug conjugation are expected to propel growth of the polymer-drug conjugates market. For instance, in March 2016, National Cancer Institute (NCI) started undergoing phase II clinical study for CRLX101, a nanoparticle drug conjugate composed of 20(S)-Camptothecin conjugated to a linear, cyclodextrin-polyethylene glycol-based polymer, for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer and the trial is expected to complete by March 2020.