Oncology Market Research Should Consider Critical Trends

Biologic Therapies: One of the major tends within cancer therapy is the emergence of a new treatment model in which biologic therapies are used in addition to, or instead of, chemotherapy. Biologic therapies use the body’s immune system to either destroy cancer cells or to reduce side effects associated with other therapies. For example, Herceptin (trastuzamab) is a monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to HER2 proteins in breast cancer patients. When it binds to defective HER2 proteins, it inhibits the survival and proliferation of tumors caused by the overexpression of HER2. One critical implication of this development for the pharmaceutical industry is its impact on the content and delivery of sales messages. Medications that stimulate the immune system also have attendant risks associated with them, such as severe infections. To address physicians’ concerns about these risks and to effectively “sell” these medications to physicians, sales reps will need to be more well-versed in the science underlying each agent’s mechanism of action, associated toxicities, etc.

Maintenance Therapy: Oncologists are increasingly leveraging maintenance therapy as a way of increasing the time-course of progression free survival. For example, Eli Lilly’s Alimta recently received FDA approval as maintenance therapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. With this therapeutic approach, cancer patients continue to receive medication even after they have responded to initial chemotherapy with an eye to reducing the likelihood or delaying subsequent progression of the disease.

Cost-Consciousness: Given the life threatening nature of most cancers, oncologists have long been known for their cost-insensitivity. However, they are now becoming more cost-conscious. This occurs at the same time that new agents, including those that are highly innovative and effective, are extremely expensive – in some cases costing more than $100,000 annually. This cost is compounded by the fact that many cancer patients are living with cancer longer, which effectively increases the amount of medication they take and, therefore, the overall cost of therapy. Consequently, the threshold within the oncology community to try and adopt new agents is becoming much more stringent. This trend may become even more pronounced as US healthcare reform is considered and possibly implemented in coming years. Moving forward, a new oncology therapeutic regimen will need to clearly demonstrate incremental survival benefits or significantly reduced toxicity in order to enter the consideration set of most oncologists. This is especially true of regimens that require the addition of medications to existing regimens which directly increases the cost of treatment.