In response to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the mainstream media today was all abuzz with the progress of a new cancer drug called olaparib, which has shown extraordinary promise in a small, early-stage clinical cancer trial for patients who were genetically vulnerable to developing these malignancies.
Olaparib works differently than other cancer drugs in that it blocks Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), a protein involved in DNA repair. In a Phase I trial of only sixty patients with a variety of different cancers, olaparib shrunk their tumors with very minimal side effects. The bigger question is whether the drugs will add benefit beyond those patients genetically disposed to developing cancer in this way, which would determine if this could potentially open up a whole new class of oncology drugs for the industry.
AstraZeneca is developing oliparib & began this journey with its 2006 purchase of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals who discovered the compound. Sanofi Aventis has since acquired BiPar Sciences for $500M to enter the category. Best we can tell, Merck and Abbott are also developing PARP inhibitors.
For an industry where success in the past decade has been predicated on competing within the new emergent drug categories (statins, gliptins, anti angiogenesis inhibitors, etc.), could this be the sign of the next big commercial opportunity? For certain, with this clinical progress and the public’s perception about this as potentially ‘the next big thing’ in cancer treatments, plenty of other CEO’s will be wondering tomorrow morning if they should add a PARP drug candidate to their pipeline.
