Oncology Emerges as the Strategic Battleground for Multinational Pharma Giants

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Market Analysis】Cancer is a very common disease. According to the 2020 global cancer burden data released by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), there were 19.29 million new cancer cases globally in 2020, and this number is expected to reach 20.2 million by 2022. Among them, China, as a populous country, has a high number of new cancer cases, reaching 4.57 million people, accounting for 23.7% of the global total. Currently, the large population of cancer patients has significant unmet clinical treatment needs.
 

According to Frost & Sullivan analysis, the global anti-tumor drug market size reached 150.3 billion US dollars in 2020, and it is expected to reach 209.9 billion US dollars by 2022. The compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2025 will be 15.2%. The promising market prospects are attracting many multinational pharmaceutical companies to increase their investment in innovative cancer drugs and treatment solutions.
 

April 5th, GE Healthcare and Elekta officially announced that they have signed a commercial cooperation agreement in the field of radiation oncology. Together, they will provide medical institutions across the globe with comprehensive solutions ranging from diagnosis to treatment to meet the radiotherapy needs of cancer patients.
 

Novartis Undergoes Major Transformation: On April 4, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan announced a new organizational structure and operational model. The focus moving forward will be on strengthening the R&D and commercialization of innovative drugs to help Novartis maintain sustained high growth. In terms of organizational structure, Novartis will integrate its pharmaceuticals and oncology divisions into a unified Innovative Medicines segment. Due to the overall restructuring, Dr. Susanne Schaffert, President of Novartis Oncology, will also leave the company.
 

On April 1, Daiichi Sankyo (China) announced an agreement with Chongqing Pharma-Younker to transfer the production and sales rights of the drug Cravit in mainland China, as well as all shares of the company responsible for producing the drug. The transfer is expected to be completed by the end of August this year. Amid fierce international market competition, the company is divesting non-core businesses to focus on the oncology field. Previously, the company had been optimizing its operations, such as transferring the production and sales rights in Japan of 11 established drugs, including the antihypertensive Acecol and the antibiotic Banan, to Alfresa Pharma, a subsidiary of Alfresa Holdings. Additionally, in March 2021, there were reports that the company planned to consolidate its cardiovascular, anti-infective, and respiratory analgesic product lines, primarily due to the impact of centralized procurement policies.
 

From the clinical pipelines of major pharmaceutical companies, oncology is also a focal point for new drug development. For example, Roche's 2021 annual report showed that the company had 80 clinical trials, with oncology trials maintaining a high level; Merck predicted in its financial report that by 2028, there would be over 90 potential new indications, mainly for Keytruda, the PARP inhibitor Lynparza in collaboration with AstraZeneca (AZ), the multi-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lenvima in collaboration with Eisai, and the First-in-class HIF-2α inhibitor WELIREG. According to IQVIA statistics, the number of anti-tumor related clinical trials initiated in 2021 reached a record high, increasing by about 70% compared to 2015.
 

Recently, Guosheng Securities also reviewed the drug candidates and product pipelines in clinical development stages of 19 multinational pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biogen, BMS, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Moderna, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi, and Takeda. Among them, oncology R&D pipelines account for 45% of the total R&D pipelines; in terms of the number of products under research, the number of global anti-tumor products under research in 2021 reached 2,226, accounting for 37%. As for companies with rich oncology pipeline layouts, the four multinational giants—BMS, Merck, Roche, and Novartis—occupy half of the oncology R&D field.
 

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