The first product candidate was launched in 1986 since then, they have been used for the treatment of a myriad of diseases, including cancer, inflammatory diseases and infectious diseases. Monoclonal antibodies have been in use for more than two decades. In fact, specific products, being developed for indications with very large target patient population, are likely to achieve blockbuster status (sales over USD 1 billion) and become prime contributors to the overall market’s evolution. We expect the market to grow at an annualized rate of ~42% till 2030. Our future market outlook is optimistic as we expect several new products to be approved and launched over the coming decade.Other popular types of collaborations were product / technology licensing agreements (25%), product development / commercialization agreements (13%) and mergers / acquisitions (7%).Avacta (14), Pieris Therapeutics (8), Affibody (7), Molecular Partners (6), Shire (5), Bicycle Therapeutics (4) and Complix (4),emerged as the most active companies in terms of the number of deals signed in the given time period. Of these, approximately 48% were R&D related deals recent examples include Bicycle Therapeutics and Bioverativ (September 2017), Complix and Merck (July 2017), Avacta and MSKCC (November 2016), Avacta and Glythera (July 2016). Around 60 partnerships were inked between various stakeholders in the industry between 2012 and October 2017.This is followed by products identified as scaffold-bispecific fusion proteins (17%), scaffold-drug conjugates (14%), radiolabeled scaffolds drugs (7%) and scaffold-fusion drugs (7%). Nearly 50% of the products are being investigated as stand-alone scaffolds.Products are also being developed for other therapeutic areas, such as eye disorders (7%), blood disorders (6%), inflammatory disorders (5%), respiratory disorders (5%), infectious diseases (4%) and genetic disorders (3%). Apart from oncology, autoimmune disorders are the most popular in fact, close to 17% of product candidates in the pipeline are being developed for such conditions. Currently, almost 40% of the products in the development pipeline are focused on oncological indications, including hematological cancers and solid tumors.Examples include (in alphabetical order) Cancer Research UK, Chonnam National University, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Harlev Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), National Cancer Institute (NCI) and University of Leeds. Several universities / research organizations, either independently or in collaboration with industry players, have also contributed to the development.In addition, small companies, such as (in alphabetical order) Affibody, Affilogic, Bicycle Therapeutics, Complix, Glythera, Navigo Proteins, Nordic Nanovector and Poseida Therapeutics, are also actively involved in this domain. Mid-sized companies that are actively contributing to the development of novel non-antibody scaffold based products include (in alphabetical order) Avacta, ITM Isotopen Technologien München, Molecular Partners, Pieris Pharmaceuticals and ThromboGenics. Some of the prominent large-sized companies engaged in this domain include (in alphabetical order) Allergan, AstraZeneca, BMS, GSK, Merck, Roche, Sanofi, Servier and Shire.
The market landscape is well distributed across large-sized (21), mid-sized (5) and small-sized companies (8).Specifically, six products are in clinical evaluation (phase I/II and above) these are (in alphabetical order) abicipar pegol (Allergan and Molecular Partners), RG6206 (BMS and Roche), ABY-025 (Affibody), ABY-035 (Affibody), MP0250 (Molecular Partners), PRS-080 (Pieris Pharmaceuticals). A significant proportion (82%) of these candidates are in preclinical / discovery stages.