Immunotherapy drugs market is estimated to be valued at USD 166.55 Billion in 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.3% over the forecast period 2024 - 2031. Advancements in immunotherapy and targeted therapies have expanded the treatment options available for managing various cancer types. Furthermore, rising approvals for immunotherapy drugs and combinations are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.
Market Dynamics:
Global immunotherapy drugs market growth is driven by rising adoption of immunotherapy and growing prevalence of cancer cases globally. One of the key factors boosting demand for immunotherapy drugs is its ability to treat cancer effectively with minimal side-effects compared to other treatments such as chemotherapy. According to the American Cancer Society 2022 report, there were an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2022. Another major driver is increasing FDA approvals and pipeline drugs. For instance, in February 2021, U.S. FDA granted accelerated approval to Libtayo (cemiplimab) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The drug showed promising results with manageable safety profile.
Increasing Prevalence of Cancer Diseases is Boosting Demand for Immunotherapy Drugs
Cancer has become one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. According to the statistics provided by World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2022, cancer accounts for nearly 10 million deaths globally every year. Increasing incidence of various cancer types such as lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer is the major factor boosting the growth of immunotherapy drugs market. Immunotherapy drugs provide an effective treatment option for cancer by enhancing the body's natural ability to fight against cancerous cells. The high success rate of immunotherapy in the treatment of various cancers is boosting its adoption rate among cancer patients.
Growing Awareness about Benefits of Immunotherapy
In the recent years, there has been a considerable rise in the awareness about immunotherapy among patients as well as physicians. Various cancer associations and healthcare organizations are conducting educational programs to spread knowledge about latest treatment options like immunotherapy. These are highlighting the advantages of immunotherapy such as improved survival and recovery rate as compared to other cancer therapies. The awareness campaigns are successfully encouraging more cancer patients to opt for immunotherapy drugs. This growing patient awareness about immunotherapy is positively impacting the overall revenues of this market.
High Cost of Immunotherapy Drugs is Restricting its Wide Acceptance
While immunotherapy has proved to be a breakthrough in cancer treatment, its high cost remains one of the major market restraint. The cost of single dose of immunotherapy drug can range from tens of thousands to few hundred thousands based on the type of drug and severity of cancer. This makes immunotherapy unaffordable for many patients. Even the patients who can afford immunotherapy drugs prefer other cancer therapies due to the high costs associated. The out-of-pocket expenses add to the economic burden on cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. This expensive nature of immunotherapy drugs limits their widespread adoption.
Scarcity of Skilled Healthcare Professionals for Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a complex treatment technique which requires specialized handling. However, there is a significant shortage of healthcare experts who have undergone proper training to administer immunotherapy. Immunotherapy drugs have different mechanism of action, side effects and dosage patterns than conventional therapies. This demands specialization in handling immunotherapy treatments. This lack of trained and skilled workforce restrains the smooth proliferation of this market. It creates difficulties for cancer facilities in providing seamless immunotherapy services.
Partnerships with Pharmaceutical Giants to Drive Commercialization of Novel Drugs
Biotech companies are actively partnering with large pharmaceutical giants to fast-track the research and commercialization of new immunotherapy drugs. Such partnerships provide biotech startups access to vast resources of pharmaceutical leaders for advancing their drug development programs. It also enables commercial scale manufacturing and global marketing of successful candidates. Multiple such partnerships have already resulted in the approval of groundbreaking immunotherapy drugs in the past few years. This partnership route is expected to facilitate the launch of more effective immunotherapy treatments going forward thereby expanding market opportunities.
Combination Therapies Emerge as a Promising Market Opportunity
With ongoing research, scientists are realizing the potential of combining immunotherapy with other treatment modalities such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiation for enhanced therapeutic outcomes. Clinical trials show improved survival benefits of combination strategies over single agent therapies. This has triggered active research on design and validation of combination regimens involving immunotherapy drugs. The success of combination approaches will drive a new wave of product development as well as new clinical applications. It promises lucrative commercial returns for pharmaceutical companies as combination therapies are projected to become a standard of care in near future.
*Link: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/immunotherapy-drugs-market-525
Key Development
- In June 2023, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a favorable recommendation to amend the marketing authorization terms for the pharmaceutical product nivolumab (Opdivo). This amendment pertains to its utilization in conjunction with platinum-based chemotherapy for the neoadjuvant treatment of resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at high risk of recurrence in adult patients whose tumors exhibit PD-L1 expression of 1% or greater.
- In September 2022, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Virogin Biotech, a biotechnology company, announced a strategic partnership aimed at expediting the progress of oncolytic virus research and development for the treatment of advanced cancers. This partnership leverages MD Anderson’s proficiency in clinical trials and infrastructure alongside Virogin’s innovative portfolio of investigational oncolytic viruses. It aims to support the clinical advancement of Virogin’s therapies through multiple trials across various cancer types, assessing safety, clinical efficacy, and identifying prognostic biomarkers of response.
- In March 2022, Merck KGaA, a biopharmaceutical company, publicized the U.S. FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a monotherapy for patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma exhibiting microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) characteristics. Pembrolizumab, a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, targets a subset of patients with endometrial carcinoma demonstrating microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair deficiency.
- In January 2022, Immunocore Ltd., a biotechnology company, disclosed the approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak), a bispecific gp100 peptide-HLA-directed CD3 T cell engager. This approval is specifically for adult patients positive for HLA-A 02:01 with unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.
Key Players: Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Merck & Co., Inc., AstraZeneca, Amgen Inc., GSK plc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Actym Therapeutics, Inc., Fate Therapeutics., Gritstone bio, Incyte, Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Arcus Biosciences, Inc., immunitybio inc, Autolus Therapeutics, ADC Therapeutics SA., BioNTech SE, and Cellectis
