Despite Generic Erosion of Several Key Brands, the Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) Market Will Experience Modest Growth through 2023

BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources Group finds that the market for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) therapies will grow to approximately $2.5 billion by 2023, despite the aggressive generic erosion of Pfizer's Sutent, GlaxoSmithKline's Votrient, Pfizer's Inlyta, Bayer HealthCare/Onyx Pharmaceuticals' Nexavar, Novartis's Afinitor, Pfizer's Torisel. Market growth will be fueled by the launch of Bristol-Myers Squibb/Ono Pharmaceutical's Opdivo and Yervoy, two immune checkpoint inhibitors. 

Other key findings from the Pharmacor report entitled Renal Cell Carcinoma:

• Head-to-head trials for Votrient and Sutent: Data from head-to-head trials comparing angiogenesis inhibitors Votrient and Sutent will increase the competition between these two agents. The COMPARZ trial has demonstrated Votrient's non-inferiority to Sutent in terms of efficacy. In addition, Votrient's more favorable safety and tolerability profile compared with Sutent will help the former in its challenge to replace Sutent as the preferred first-line therapy.
• Approval of Opdivo: The approval of Opdivo will herald a new era for immunotherapies' use in RCC. Following the approval of targeted agents, immunotherapies such as cytokines have been falling out of favor. With the forecasted launch of Opdivo (first as a monotherapy, followed by a subsequent approval in combination with Yervoy) in the first- and later lines of therapy brings a new class of immunotherapies into focus—namely immune checkpoint inhibitors. The entry of this class will significantly boost the RCC market.
• Impact of targeted therapies on treatment rates: The approval of numerous targeted therapies has increased treatment rates in the third and later lines of therapy. Afinitor's status as patient share leader in the third- and fourth-line settings will be challenged following the anticipated launch of Opdivo.

Other Comments from Decision Resources Group Analyst Dana Gheorghe, Ph.D.:

• "The renal cell carcinoma market has a plethora of approved agents, targeting angiogenesis pathways or the mTOR pathway, but an unmet need for improved patient survival still remains. The market launch of Opdivo will signal a paradigm switch in treating RCC patients, moving away from current staples, the tyrosine kinase inhibitors, to the very promising immune checkpoint inhibitors class."
• "Antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mTOR inhibitors will remain viable treatment options across all lines of therapy, but they will experience increased competition from Opdivo, which has demonstrated promising clinical activity in both treatment-naive, as well as pretreated RCC patients and is expected to offer survival benefits over current therapies."

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