What’s hot at ASCO 2012?

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Daedalus

ASCO 2012 Meeting Chicago 225x300 Whats hot at ASCO 2012? The 2012 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) takes place in Chicago in just over two weeks time from June 1 – 5. The ASCO abstracts will be publicly available tomorrow (May 16) at 6pm EDT.

We’re looking forward to being at ASCO, and picking up the latest data for new products and evaluating the impact this may have on our understanding of key pathways and drug development targets.

If you want to know what Sally Church, PhD predicts will be highlights of the ASCO 2012 meeting (in the absence of any abstract information) then watch her informative video and check out her ASCO preview post on Pharma Strategy Blog.

If you plan to be at ASCO 2012 and would like to meet up and discuss our capabilities, please contact us.

AACR 2012 meeting: a window into potential new cancer drugs

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Daedalus

Bill Sellers gives an AACR plenary talk

The annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), held in Chicago earlier this month, is one of the most important meetings of the year for cancer scientists, pharma/biotech drug development and new products professionals.

Bill Sellers, in the AACR plenary session, described how Novartis are using the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) in conjunction with the Broad Institute to identify promising new compounds.

As Sally Church, PhD noted on Pharma Strategy Blog in her post on the highlights of AACR 2012:

“What made the meeting exciting for me was the sheer number of new compounds emerging from late preclinical to early phase 1.”

Two of the many promising new drugs in early stages of development were highlighted on Biotech Strategy Blog:

AZD3514 (AstraZeneca), a selective androgen receptor down regulator (SARD) in phase 1 clinical trials for castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

ABT-199 (Abbott), a new Bcl-2 inhibitor (that improves on navitoclax), in phase 1 drug development for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

David Woessner (@pinfoto)

There were many noteworthy posters presented at AACR particularly from young researchers

e.g. “Overcoming resistance to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in non-small cell lung cancer” was a poster that suggested the prospect of future drug development targets.

Laura Strong, PhD (@scientre)

During the high quality poster and oral sessions, we met numerous people including CEOs of baby biotechs, young researchers and clinicians with an interest in translational research, including Laura Strong, Ph.D President & COO of Quintessence Biosciences (@scientre), David Woessner who was presenting his PhD research (@pinfoto) and Philippe Aftimos, MD from Belgium (@aftimosp), all of whom were actively sharing their observations during numerous sessions via Twitter during the conference.

The annual meeting is not just about basic science though, but also drug development strategy and emerging research trends, such as the automation of preclinical drug discovery, as well as the collaboration between academia and Pharma/Biotech in combination clinical trials using two novel compounds from different companies. This last trend, I am pleased to say, has already begun and will hopefully continue apace in the future.

If you were not able to attend AACR, then Sally Church aggregated all the #AACR tweets from the meeting on Pharma Strategy Blog. AACR also have webcasts of some of the sessions available, including some with free access.

We’re already looking forward to AACR 2013 in Washington, DC and the timing of the meeting means it should take place when the renowned Cherry Blossom are in full bloom. Hopefully, this will provide a great opportunity for another Pharma Strategy Blog video!

Do you know who your thought leaders are and what they think about your product?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Daedalus

One of the emerging trends we saw at the recent European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Paris was an increase in the number of plenary and session presentations by physicians from Eastern European countries.

This trend is set to continue, and we expect to see more physicians from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) group of countries and other emerging markets presenting at global science and medical meetings in the future.

Poland is a good example of a country that should be on the radar of any global pharmaceutical company. It is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, and was the only European country to avoid a recession in 2008-2009.

It was interesting to note that Tomasz Borkowski (Department of Urology at the Medical University of Warsaw) who gave a major session presentation at EAU on “Cancer induced bone disease – prevention and treatment’ listed only one company on his disclosures.

Clearly, some companies are ahead of others in identifying and building relationships with thought or key opinion leaders (KOLs) as they are commonly known.

One of the services we offer clients is market research with thought leaders at the global, national and regional level. Like all market research, this is anonymous – you don’t know the name or the institution and the physician doesn’t know who the sponsor is. This allows the doctor to speak more freely. This type of market research can provide valuable insights into what they think about a product or market opportunity with less bias.

Do you know who your thought leaders are and what think about your product? If not, please contact us and we would be delighted to help you meet your brand business goals.

Abiraterone price may be discounted 40% for UK NICE approval

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Daedalus

At the recent European Association of Urology (EAU) Annual Congress in Paris, one of the rumours was that the price of abiraterone (Zytiga) has been discounted 40% to the UK National Health Service (NHS) in order to obtain reimbursement approval from the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE).

As Sally notes in her video report from EAU 2012, if true, this has important commercial implications in the advanced prostate cancer market and potential new entrants such as MDV3100.

When looking at the prostate cancer competitive landscape and a market entry strategy, one of the issues to consider is reimbursement.

Regulatory approval to market a drug in Europe does not automatically mean it will be reimbursed or paid for by healthcare providers. Abiraterone is a good example of this.

Another driver of price and reimbursement will be the cumulative cost of treatment for advanced prostate cancer. This is set to increase dramatically as new products such as MDV3100 and Alpharadin come to market, and their use moves from post-chemotherapy to the pre-chemotherapy setting.

You can gain more insights on some of the future challenges by watching Sally’s excellent conference coverage video from EAU 2012:

There is also more information from EAU 2012 on Biotech Strategy Blog e.g. on Bayer’s Expanded Access Program for Alpharadin and an update on Millennium’s orteronel (TAK-700), a competitor to abiraterone.

Sally’s next conference video will be from the forthcoming American Assocation for Cancer Research (AACR) 2012 annual meeting that takes in place Chicago from March 31 – April 4. We hope to see you there.

Understanding the biology of colorectal cancer will lead to more rational drug development

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Daedalus

Cancer drug development is becoming more targeted and focused as a result of scientific advances. The understanding of ALK gene rearrangements in lung cancer led to the development of crizotinib (Xalkori) for the subset of patients who are ALK-positive.

Sally Church, Ph.D on Pharma Strategy Blog has reviewed some of the recent advances in our understanding of colororectal cancer (CRC).

Resistance to chemotherapy in colon cancer

The transcription factor AP-2 epsilon (TFAP2E-DKK4) appears to be responsible for some of the resistance to chemotherapy that occurs during colon cancer.

As Sally noted, “the presence of the TFAP2E-DKK4 mutation may explain why some patients with colorectal cancer do better with chemotherapy than others.”

Inflammation linked to the early development of colon cancer

Researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified the role of inflammation and silencing of tumor suppressor genes in early colorectal cancer.

Understanding the biology of the disease could lead to the ability to identify those at high risk of developing colon cancer. Chemopreventative drugs could then be given to this subset of high risk patients to delay the onset of cancer. An exciting prospect!

Understanding the role of CIMP in early colorectal cancer

CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) can occur in 30% of colorectal cancer patients and has been shown to be an independent predictor of survival with 5FU in early or adjuvant CRC. CIMP may play an important role in tumor development. Expect to hear more on the link between inflammation, DNA methylation and early development of CRC.

Identifying subsets of patients will support rational drug development

Researchers have now shown that BRAF(V600E) mutations occur in 8-10% of colon cancers. The ability to identify this subset of patients could allow therapeutic options to be specifically targeted at them, in the same way that ALK+ lung cancer patients now receive crizotinib. Previously though, we didn’t know why vemurafenib was showing lack of efficacy in this group. New research has now given us some pointers.

As Sally noted on Pharma Strategy Blog, “a combination of vemurafenib and and an EGFR inhibitor such as as erlotinib, cetuximab or gefitinib, might be a useful clinical approach to try therapeutically in patients with colon cancer harboring the BRAFV600E mutation.”

As we learn more about the biology and early development of colorectal cancer, the ability to undertake rational drug development will increase. This is good news both for patients and for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies who want to successfully bring new products to market.

Pharma Conference Coverage Strategy

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Daedalus

We live in a world of data that threatens to overwhelm our work and personal lives. Part of the reason for this is the price of data storage continues to fall dramatically.

Today, an external hard drive offers a 1TB capacity; a few years ago the same product offered 100GB. A 10x increase in storage capacity for the same money in the space of a few years.

Data is now available from online posters, abstracts, webcasts and presentations. We also have Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media competing for our time.

ASCO 2011: “the never ending walk”

What this means is that if you plan to attend a major medical or scientific meeting such as the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which offers a lot of data, you need to have a conference coverage strategy.

Here are a few tips we suggest you consider:

Don’t go for a “Data Dump”

Too often we see a “fear of missing out” (FOMO) mentality drive a “we must capture everything” policy. All this results in is a mass of data that somebody has to analyze after the meeting. Too often a 300+ page data dump report (when it finally is produced) ends up sitting on the metaphorical shelf.

Focus on Key Questions

Prior to a major medical or scientific meeting it’s important to develop a list of the key questions that a brand, commercial or new products team need answered. The questions could be on competitor activity, developments in a pathway or impact of clinical data on the standard of care. Data collection can then be focusoned on answering those key questions.

Insights cost more

Recently, staff at a top 20 pharma company told us they were paying $X for a conference “data dump” but only had 10% of $X available for strategic insights. In Twitter speak, they had #LostThePlot as it should be the other way round since insights are more valuable than raw data.

As management consultants, we might produce a Powerpoint slide with a table or chart based on data from 20 posters. In order to select those 20 key posters, we could have reviewed perhaps 200 posters originally. Which would you rather have, one slide with insights and analysis or 200 Powerpoint slides with data? Our philosophy is “less is more.”

Insights cost more because it takes in-depth therapeutic area knowledge and expertise to condense data into a meaningful story and make strategic recommendations.

What is your conference coverage strategy for this year? Please contact us if you would like to learn more about our capabilities.

Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase is a novel target for B-Cell Malignancies

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Daedalus

ASH 2011 Poster Session

Two Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitors in clinical development (PCI-32765 & AVL-292) generated a lot of interest at the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in San Diego.

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has been following BTK as a novel drug development target, and saw its potential in early data presented at ASH 2010 and ASCO 2011.

Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase is a critical kinase for lymphoma cell survival and proliferation. It plays an important role in B-lymphocyte development, differentiation and signaling. As Sally noted on Pharma Strategy Blog:

“It is a critical part of the BCL pathway that leads to cell proliferation, so targeting it leads to cell death or apoptosis.”

Sally’s insightful blog post goes into more detail on the Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase clinical data presented at ASH by Dr Susan O’Brien (MD Anderson Cancer Center).

A number of companies are now taking an interest in BTK inhibition. Johnson & Johnson announced a $1B licensing deal for PCI-32765 just prior to the meeting. Sally’s analysis of this was:

“Based on the data seen over the last two years, I thought they got a steal”

BTK inhibition looks to be a promising target for B-cell malignancies such as non-hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) & chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). This is good news for patients.

BTK inhibitors are a new class of targeted therapies that we can expect to hear more about in the future.

What will be hot at ASCO 2012 in Chicago?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Daedalus

ASCO 2012 is in Chicago from June 1 – 5

While everyone is busy making predictions about what the New Year will bring, we are already thinking about what are going to be hot topics at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

ASCO is the largest and most important meeting of the year for those involved in oncology new product development and marketing strategy.

Predicting what will be hot at a meeting and when new trial data will be presented is not easy. However, positive or negative data from a major clinical trial can have a huge impact on a market or in the case of new products in development, the market potential.

Prior to ASCO 2011, Sally Church produced the following preview video. It’s still worth watching if you missed it the first time round.

Sally has already started working on her list of what may be hot at ASCO 2012 in preparation for this year’s video.

On Pharma Strategy Blog yesterday, Sally discussed the recent results for the VEGF inhibitor tivozanib (AVEO/Astellas) in advanced renal cancer (RCC).

Tivozanib showed a greater progression free survival (PFS) compared to sorafenib, but “the sorafenib arm did better than expected,” noted Sally. You can read more analysis about what this means on Pharma Strategy Blog.

The tivozanib data has been submitted as an abstract for ASCO this year (abstract deadline is February 1st), leading Sally to conclude that:

“This year’s ASCO is going to be a most interesting meeting for renal cell cancer.”

Time perhaps to starting making your New Year predictions of what may be hot at ASCO in 2012?

Update May 16, 2012 – What’s hot at ASCO 2012?

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has published her preview of the ASCO 2012 meeting and what interesting data she’s expecting at #ASCO12.

You can watch Sally’s informative video below:

SABCS San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Conference coverage #SABCS

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Daedalus

Deserted River Walk due to San Antonio cold weather

If you are interested in news from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) then Sally Church, PhD has a number of reports on Pharma Strategy Blog that are worth reading.

SABCS Video Preview

In her preview of the SABCS meeting (that you can also watch below), Sally reviews some of the BOLERO-2, CLEOPATRA and NEOSPHERE clinical trials, and what impact positive data may have on breast cancer patients. It is well worth watching.

SABCS Twitter Coverage

Although there is no wifi in the meeting rooms at SABCS, a few scientists, patients advocates and physicians are tweeting from the meeting including @drsteventucker and @teamoncology. You can easily follow the twitter conversation and check-out what’s been said through the #SABCS aggregator on Pharma Strategy Blog. As Sally would say, “check it out!”

As an example of how effective social media can be to share information, Pieter Droppert (@3NT) used storify to share some of the insights posted on twitter during the SABCS plenary lecture he attended on potential of macrophages as breast cancer drug development targets.

Breast Cancer and the Environment

Pieter also commented on the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on “Breast Cancer and the Environment” which was somewhat disappointing to those hoping that it would highlight causal links.

Hot news at SABCS

The Alamo San Antonio Texas 300x225 SABCS San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Conference coverage #SABCS This year the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium had a lot of exciting new data. Two papers on the BOLERO-2 and CLEOPATRA trial data was published during the meeting.

Some of the interesting early data presented at the meeting included work on Notch inhibition to reduce aromatase inhibitor resistance, HER2 mutants and targeting HER3. You can read more updates from Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Overall, this was one of the most interesting SABCS meetings of recent years with a good balance of science and clinical data.

Hopefully next year, there will be more discussants to put the data in context, as this would have made it an even better meeting.

Opportunities and Challenges with Cancer Immunotherapy

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Daedalus

At Icarus Consultants, we help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies bring new products to market.

When we look at the market opportunity for a new product, it’s not enough to have a great product, key to success is getting paid for it. Pricing and reimbursement are important in the commercial strategy!

Is it better to obtain the highest price for a new targeted therapy or alternatively have a lower price and obtain more market share? From a marketing strategy perspective, there is sometimes a case to be made for a lower price, but it’s a hard sell to convince senior management they are not leaving money on the table.

As to cancer immunotherapy, Dendreon with sipuleucel-T have shown that it can offer a survival benefits to some cancer patients. Other vaccines and immunotherapies are in development.

However, as Pieter Droppert points out in an insightful post on Biotech Strategy blog about a pilot study for PANVAC (Bavarian Nordic, CV-301), there remain a number of challenges that still have to be overcome. These include:

How do we identify upfront which patients will respond to the vaccine?
How do we evaluate how well patients are doing without clinically validated surrogate markers to aid in assessment?

You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.

There is a plenary session on cancer immunotherapy at the AACR-NCI-EORTC Cancer Molecular Targets & Therapeutics conference that starts in San Francisco tomorrow.

We look forward to obtaining further insights on the opportunities and challenges with cancer immunotherapy at this meeting.

Icarus Consultants

Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology Marketing Strategy & New Product Development Consulting

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