Pharmaceutical companies to benefit from new blood cancer drugs

Blood cancer drugs represent a growth opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry over the next few years, Moody's Investors Service says in a new report, titled Blood Cancer Breakthroughs Will Benefit J&J, Roche and Others. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation to several new pipeline drugs to treat these cancers, and two have already been approved.

"New revenue opportunities from blood cancer drugs are large, and many are incremental," says Moody’s senior vice president, Michael Levesque, adding: "We believe the biggest opportunities are in treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma."

For chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), new treatments represent significant improvements over existing ones, Mr Levesque says, and many patients will exhaust multiple therapies and combinations, leading to incremental sales. At the same time, declines in existing products will be limited, since treatment regimens often combine old and new compounds. And several compounds for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) are either filed or in phase III trials, expanding treatment options for these patients.