Jan 1, 1970 - Jan 1, 1970,

Nearly $8 Billion Profit Expected in NSCLC Market due to B-MS Blockbuster

Bristol Myers-Squibb’s (B-MS) nivolumab could expand the global non-small cancer cell lung cancer (NSCLC) market from $5.7 billion in 2012 to $7.9 billion in 2022.



A new report by market intelligence firm GlobalData predicts that this new form of immunotherapy by B-MS, which would account for $1.75 billion of sales by 2022, will overtake current bestsellers such as Roche’s Avastin and Eli Lilly’s necitumumab (estimated 2022 earnings of $384 million).

With a potential launch scheduled for 2015, Nivolumab could become the chief player in this market as it targets two unmet medical needs in disease management. It promises to act as a treatment for squamous patients, an area which has no targeted therapies to date and could also act as a superior second-line therapy, after an expected first-line setting in 2019.

Oncology health care analyst at GlobalData Brooke Baker explains the advantages of nivolumab for the NSCLC market saying, “NSCLC is the second most common cancer in both men and women, and patients who are diagnosed with the condition have an extremely poor prognosis, with five-year survival rates limited to approximately 2% in US patients diagnosed at stage four of the disease.

Nivolumab’s mechanism of action means it is able to exploit the body’s own immune system and initiate an anti-tumor immune response by targeting PD-1, a biomarker with high expression across many tumor types, therefore giving the drug the potential to be a blockbuster new NSCLC therapy.” 

Previously, market research group Datamonitor has also praised this PD-1 inhibitor by B-MS after its phase I trial indicated that the drug can be taken by itself or in combination with Yervoy. It was stated that if the drug’s ongoing phase III trial mirrors its initial results, B-MS could expect US and EU market sales of $436 million in 2021. It was recommended that B-MS should position nivolumab as a monotherapy so as to prevent competition between its two immunotherapies in the first-line setting of melanoma.      

However, forecasters at GlobalData stipulate that although growth is expected in the NSCLC market, there will be several hurdles along the way. For instance, EU growth could be limited by approval procedures for reimbursement and a higher level of pricing for emerging pipeline agents. US expansion could also be hindered by the adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which could result in the creation of a cost-conscious environment that would threaten the free-pricing system.



Jan 1, 1970 - Jan 1, 1970,