Pancreatic cancer pipeline highly innovative but at risk of high attrition before market

Although the pancreatic cancer pipeline is currently highly innovative, a significant proportion of these therapies are unlikely to reach the market in the near future, according to a new report from business intelligence provider GBI Research.

The pancreatic cancer treatment pipeline contains 447 therapeutics in active development across all phases, compared to 209 products currently on the market, but almost 75% of therapies are in Phase I or earlier. Just 4% of products in the pipeline are at Phase III of development, while 58% are in discovery or preclinical stages, 17% at Phase I and 21% at Phase II.

Joshua Libberton, an analyst for GBI Research, said: “While the Phase III portion of the pipeline is comparatively small, it is followed by a relatively large Phase II, indicating that there will be a sustained stream of products moving through the later development stages. Despite the majority of pancreatic cancer therapy development occurring in very early stages, many of the assessed targets showed promising preclinical results and a strong alignment to known disease-causing pathways, which could translate to clinical and commercial success.”