Posted by Michael Wonder on 02 Jul 2017
Fears over a medical gold rush in cancer drug race
3 July 2017 - With almost 800 trials under way observers warn scientific rigour is being compromised.
It might sound like a strange complaint against an industry often accused of scrimping on research to fund marketing efforts, but some executives and scientists say drugmakers are doing too many clinical trials in the hot new field of immunotherapy.
Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb have dominated the first wave of immunotherapy with their “checkpoint inhibitors”, which release brakes in the immune system so that it can attack tumours, while Roche, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are trying to catch up by launching rival versions. Almost $9bn worth of these checkpoints have been sold since they went on sale two years ago.
