German pharma hails progress against cancer and rare diseases

Never has the pharmaceutical industry made as much progress against cancer as in the past few years, said Birgit Fischer, director general of the German pharma association, the VFA. There are 13 new drugs currently awaiting approval or about to be introduced to the market. Pharma devotes a third of its research to cancer, noted Ms Fischer, and it is paying off.

The new treatments have been developed to combat tumors in the breast, lung, skin, kidney, bone and thyroid gland, and should also help against various forms of leukemia and lymphoma. Several will introduce new methods of cancer therapy, such as the inhibition of the enzyme EML4-ALK, which only appears with certain tumors.

Four of the drugs are to be applied in the context of personalized medicine, whereby genetic and other characteristics are considered in addition to the disease when determining treatment. An initial test to diagnose whether a drug is likely to help a patient is a key component of the personalised approach. This prevents the patient from embarking on unsuccessful therapy and helps the doctor find the right dosage.