Cancer is one the most dreaded diseases worldwide and is spreading like a pandemic in Asia- Pacific region. The high rate of occurrence is largely due to a growing middle class, control of other causes of early mortality such as infection as well as adoption of a sedentary lifestyle. Amongst the many types of cancer, lung cancer is the most prevalent due to high smoking rates and pollution in industrialized areas.
Non-communicable diseases account for over 65% of the overall burden of disease in APAC markets. Within non-communicable diseases, cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, responsible for 8.8 million deaths globally in 2015. In APAC, cancer accounts for 15.5% of the burden of non-communicable diseases and 21.7% of non-communicable disease mortality, second only to cardiovascular disease.
Oncology/Cancer Drug Market
Global demand for cancer drugs is primarily for incidences of lung, breast, and cervical cancer. Other major contributors are factors such as increased R&D on biological and targeted drug therapies, or expiration of earlier patents. However, high cost of drug development as well as strict regulation, further accentuated by a high likelihood of failure, may put a spanner in market growth. However, an increasing focus on personalized medicine along with significant global investment in research may also open up future avenues for the cancer drugs market.
Cancer drugs market is segregated along therapeutic segments – such as immunotherapy, targeted treatments, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and so on. Amongst these, immunotherapy is expected to grow at the fastest rate globally, in short to medium term.
Sanjeev Kumar, Industry Manager, Transformational Health, Life Sciences, Frost & Sullivan says, "Major drivers for APAC cancer diagnostics market are: increased adoption of technology platforms, access to targeted cancer therapeutics and higher demand from patients for affordable and quality care. Furthermore, a global push towards precision medicine has gradually propelled the uptake of innovative platforms such as NGS, liquid biopsy for gradual adoption into mainstream clinical diagnosis. "
Given the high demand for quick and affordable diagnostic tests in APAC for early cancer diagnosis, multiplexed immunoassays are expected to be instrumental in exploring and validating novel biomarkers that are highly adopted in combating cancer. This is despite the emergence of molecular diagnostics and liquid biopsy tools. Further, growing incidence of cancer in the region has necessitated development of low-cost screening devices as part of imaging, for accurate early-stage diagnosis. POC Medical Systems Inc. has developed a portable breast cancer screening test MammoAlert™ based on its Pandora CDx™ microfluidics-based platform – it provides for simultaneous molecular test for presence of 90 serum markers. Average test costs for patients is less than US$5. Plans are in progress to expand the test menu to oral, prostate, and cervical cancer, targeting emerging countries. This could be a game changer for cancer diagnosis in such geographies.
Mr Kumar believes that there is a huge price cut across pathology segments in countries like Japan, Australia – owing to increasing healthcare expenditure. "As a result, uptake of innovative molecular diagnostics solutions is hampered. Moreover, there is a high need for demonstration of clinical utility and cost-effectivity over existing standard diagnostic tests", he adds.
Emerging countries are a target for oncology drugs, shifting from conventionally focussing on US, EU and Japan. As of 2013, ~75% of total oncology drugs are contributed by US (~41%), EU-5 (~24%) and Japan (~10%). Real-term scenario of price deflation in medical devices industry along with a high rate of product turnover and disruptive technologies entering the oncology landscape, has widened the competitive landscape. Three important cancers – stomach, oesophagus and liver – accounted for 34% of cancer incidence and 4...
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