New drivers of oncology market - Yervoy, Zelboraf, Xalkori and Zytiga - assessed

The cancer marketplace is going through a paradigm shift with new product launches and competitive promotion vying for patient treatment share. “The medical advances of the last decade are starting to bear fruit with some exciting products launches in markets with high unmet needs,” says Dan Winkelman a therapeutic class director in oncology at BioTrends, a Decision Resources company, announcing a new set of reports, providing insights on uptake of new products and their impact on market dynamics.

• LaunchTrends: Melanoma (Yervoy & Zelboraf). There have been limited advances in the treatment of melanoma over the last decade. A major catalyst for change is now here with the launch of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy (ipilimumab), a monoclonal antibody that may stimulate the immune system to fight cancer and Roche/Genentech’s Zelboraf (vemurafenib), a first-in-class personalized treatment that works on patients with a BRAFV600E mutation.

• LaunchTrends: Xalkori. Personalized medicine continues to be driver of change in the oncology marketplace, with the launch of Pfizer’s Xalkori (crizotinib), a targeted therapy which has recently been approved for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients with a specific biomarker (anaplastatic lymphoma kinase [ALK]) positive).