Updated Global Immuno-Oncology Landscape Report Highlights Robust International Pipeline Marked by Rapid Growth

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of powerful immunotherapies for all cancers, announced today the publication of a report that provides a comprehensive, independent analysis of the global landscape of cancer immunotherapy, also known as immuno-oncology, including all agents from preclinical to marketed stages.

The report, titled, “Trends in the global immuno-oncology landscape,” appeared online today in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, a premium journal from Nature Publishing Group and an authoritative source of information in drug discovery and development. This report, which builds on CRI’s previously published landscape analysis of the entire field of immuno-oncology, highlights the major trends in the global immuno-oncology pipeline from September 2017 to September 2018.

“The quantitative analyses from this report reveal a 67% increase of the number of active immuno-oncology pipeline agents in a year, showing the unprecedented enthusiasm and commitment of the field,” said Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, PhD, chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs at the Cancer Research Institute.

“In addition to traditional powerhouses of multi-national pharmaceutical companies, some new biotech companies and even academic institutes have made significant progress in development in this space in both the preclinical and clinical phases,” noted Jun Tang, PhD, the corresponding and first author of the report and senior manager of the CRI Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator. “It is very exciting to see that many new cancer immunotherapy targets are being evaluated, suggesting tremendous investment in preclinical and basic research in the field,” Tang added.

The Cancer Research Institute has created an interactive online dashboard based on this report and has made it available on the CRI website. Based on the large number of approvals of cancer immunotherapy, the report suggests the current excitement in the field is justified and will generate many paradigm-shifting therapies in the near future.

“CRI’s Clinical Accelerator program creates an independent space where philanthropic funding and clinical trial operation support facilitate the testing of agents from multiple companies in early phase, proof-of-concept clinical studies,” said Vanessa Hubbard-Lucey, PhD, director of the Clinical Accelerator program. “Those studies are carried out by the leading cancer immunotherapy experts across multiple academic centers, positioning our organization as an ideal third-party partner to harness the expanding innovation in this space,” added Hubbard-Lucey.

To access the interactive dashboard of the report, visit the CRI website at cancerresearch.org/io-landscape.

Reference: Tang J. et al. (in press). Trends in the global immuno-oncology landscape. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2018.167  

About the Cancer Research Institute 

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), established in 1953, is the world’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to transforming cancer patient care by advancing scientific efforts to develop new and effective immune system-based strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and eventually cure all cancers. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel laureates and 26 members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI has invested $384 million in support of research conducted by immunologists and tumor immunologists at the world’s leading medical centers and universities, and has contributed to many of the key scientific advances that demonstrate the potential for immunotherapy to change the face of cancer treatment. To learn more, go to cancerresearch.org

About the Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator

CRI’s clinical program, the Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator, is a unique academia-nonprofit-industry collaboration model that serves as an “incubator” that delivers multi-center clinical trials for promising new immunotherapy combinations. CRI’s venture philanthropy fund supports clinical trials within this program, which fosters a collaborative environment that enables scientists to advance their most ambitious research ideas, and accelerates studies that one group or company could not do alone. To learn more about the Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator, go to cancerresearch.org/clinical-accelerator.