Posts tagged ‘Oncology Market’
Making sense of data is what we do. We live in a world where, thanks to the internet, the sheer volume of available data is increasing at an enormous rate.
Too often we see staff at client companies focus their energy on gathering data as cheaply as possible, instead of asking or seeking to understand what does all the data mean from a competitive stand point?
Data is now commoditized. Anyone can gain access to past ASCO Virtual Meetings, for example, and watch a rerun of conference presentations. While obtaining data is relatively easy, insights are a lot more expensive and difficult to generate.
Why?
Well, they require the application of knowledge, deep understanding and expertise of the topic to analyze, conceptualize and visualize data, and then extrapolate what it means to a company or product.
Here’s a fun video that shows how a picture tells a thousand words. Professor Hans Rosling, in this excerpt from a BBC documentary, shows the public health history of 200 countries in 4 minutes…
Turning data into a powerful illustration requires the expenditure of intellectual effort.
Making sense of data is what we do at Icarus Consultants.
Last week the hot news was the anticipated FDA approval of vemurafenib (Zelboraf™) in metastatic melanoma for patients with BRAF V600E mutations.
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has written extensively about new products in development for metastatic melanoma. As Sally notes in her recent blog post discussing the Zelboraf™ approval:
“the good news is that oncologists now have two new agents for treatment in 2011, which is very much a grand cru year for melanoma.”
A little known fact is that Sally is a former finalist in the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper’s wine taster of the year competition, so it is perhaps not surprising to see some wine references in her writing.
If you are interested in the price of Zelboraf™ – you can find it on Pharma Strategy Blog where Sally analyses the cost of a course of treatment and compares this to the price for ipilimumab.
Pieter Droppert’s write-up of the 2011 ASCO annual meeting plenary data on metastatic melanoma was recently published in the august issue of Pharmacy Today.
At ASCO this year, there was a lot of interest in BRAF mutated melanoma, with data being presented in the plenary session on vemurafenib (PLX4032) and ipilimumab.
However, as Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog points out, 40% of all new cancer cases are due to non-melanoma skin cancer, with over one million diagnoses each year in the US.
Sally discusses research published in the AACR journal Cancer Research by Mei Ming and colleagues from the University of Chicago on how the tumor suppressor gene phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome ten (PTEN) regulates UVB-induced DNA damage.
The research shows that PTEN has a key role to play in human skin cancer formation and progression with low levels of PTEN associated with slower rates of DNA repair after UVB radiation damage.
As Sally notes on her blog, “a greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underpinning non-melanoma skin cancer potentially means that chemoprevention strategies can be developed down the road.”
You can read more about the role PTEN plays in non-melanoma skin cancer on Pharma Strategy Blog.
It takes desire, discipline and determination to blog regularly, and as a result many blogs fall by the wayside over time. However, Sally Church has been writing a blog on oncology, hematology, cancer science & biology, clinical trials and new product development for the past five years. It continues to go from strength to strength thanks to Sally’s passion for the area.
Sally recently announced on Pharma Strategy Blog that she had reached the 900 blog post milestone. In recognition of this, Sally took the time to answer the follow questions:
- Why do you blog?
- How do you decide what to write about?
- What makes a good blog post?
- Looking back on 900 posts – which posts are most memorable?
- What are your future goals for Pharma Strategy Blog?
You can find out Sally’s answers in the following video:
EHA 2011 patient advocacy session missing two or three doses of CML therapy per month may have serious impact on outcome
June 16th, 2011
Daedalus
Have you ever failed to complete a course of antibiotics or missed the occasional dose of a cancer drug thinking it won’t kill you?
An interesting presentation by David Marin of the Hammersmith Hospital at the recent European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress in London highlighted how missing two or three doses per month of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) may have a dramatic effect on outcome.
Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog has written more about the patient advocacy session at EHA 2011 where Dr Marin presented on CML adherence.
As Sally Church discusses on her EHA video blog, better patient and physician education is needed about adherence along with packaging of drugs that encourages compliance.
The take home is that even if you feel better, continuing to take a treatment may the right course of action in the long-term.
If you are interested in more information about CML adherence, then Jan Geissler, who chaired the EHA patient advocacy session, has posted more information on the CML Advocates Network website.
Understanding the mechanism of rituximab resistance in Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL)
April 28th, 2011
Daedalus
Rituximab (Rituxan®) is a monoclonal antibody used to treat Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL). It targets the CD20 marker on B-cells from which most NHL develops.
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog asks why do some patients develop resistance to rituximab, while others do not?
The answer according to recent research reviewed by Sally is that some patients develop C-terminal deletion mutations of CD20 that are part of the mechanism that causes resistance to rituximab in Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL).
As Sally points out in her blog post, understanding rituximab resistance in lymphoma can help identify patients who need to change treatments earlier. It may also lead to new product development opportunities e.g. targeting a different molecule such as CD22.
A venture capital firm in Boston yesterday bet $40M in first round financing that Dr Druker and his partners can repeat the success of Gleevec/Glivec with a new Boston/Cambridge life sciences start-up company, Blueprint Medicines.
If Daedalus had money to invest, a wager on Dr Druker would be as good as any in the biotechnology industry. After the successful development of Gleevec/Glivec, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that Drs Druker & Lydon were instrumental in developing with Novartis for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), it’s hard not to believe that they cannot do it again.
Icarus Consultants’ Sally Church worked closely with Dr Druker while at Novartis Oncology. Starting in oncology new products she saw the potential of STI-571, and subsequently took the product to market in the U.S. market as Gleevec. We wish him well, and should Blueprint Medicines need any commercial, marketing strategy consulting services, we hope he’ll call us 
.
You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.
At the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Icarus Consultant’s oncology expert and social media guru generated video highlights for Pharma Strategy Blog; a first for Sally and no mean feat to shoot a video blog (vblog) after a full day at a conference.
In case you missed the videos, you can watch them below:
Day 1 highlights of the AACR Annual Meeting by Sally Church, PhD include how to use Twitter to keep in touch with breaking news at a meeting such as AACR, and what Sally thinks will be hot news.
Day 2 highlights of the AACR Annual Meeting by Sally Church, PhD include commentary on the plenary presentation by Dr Harold Varmus of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), exciting phase II data on GDC-0449, a hedgehog pathway inhibitor for the prevention of basal cell carcinoma in basal cell nevus syndrome (BCNS) patients, and the launch of a new journal, Cancer Discovery, by AACR.
You can read more about the AACR annual meeting on Pharma Strategy Blog.