The Segmentation of Therapeutic Populations in Oncology

The emergence of targeted therapies in oncology has enormous potential to improve care for individual patients and specific subpopulations. A consequence of these advances is the segmentation of oncology into numerous sub-types, often with small patient populations. In this research we document the growth of candidate therapeutics along with the resultant segmentation of oncology treatments, based on a querying of the PharmaProjects® database for all anti-cancer indications from 1995 through 2011, augmented with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) incidence information. We find that the number of marketed oncology treatments has doubled since 1995 from 71 to 146, while the proportion of molecular entities in Phase II/ III programs with unidentified targets has declined from 56 percent to 28 percent. The number of anti-cancer compounds marketed or in active programs increased to 1,428 from 538, while active molecular targets under investigation have expanded from 99 to 265, with 590 distinct total targets explored over this period. We consider clinical, economic and development challenges emanating from the increasingly segmented oncology marketplace