Research and Markets: Progress in Cancer Therapeutics - Targeted Therapeutics.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- In the Field of Cancer Therapeutics, Cytotoxic Drugs Will Be Replaced with Treatments Based on a Biological Approach

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Progress in Cancer Therapeutics - Targeted Therapeutics to their offering.

Today, new knowledge in pathology drives a development of more targeted drugs. This 500 page report structures and analyzes the new generation of targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.

In the field of cancer therapeutics, cytotoxic drugs will be replaced with treatments based on a biological approach. Hopefully these new therapies will take over the market not only by increasing the efficacy, but also by significantly decreasing the devastating and troublesome side effects elicted by chemotherapy.

Novel therapeutic strategies include immunotherapy, vascular targeting, antisens; gene therapy, targeted therapeutics and apoptotic induction have been studied to reveal mainly industry progress but as well key scientific breakthroughs. Several hundreds of therapeutic candidates are competing in this environment and many of them will never succeed, whereas a few will turn out to be the big winners.

This Highlight Report will provide an update on the early failure of drugs in anti-angiogenesis such as Avastin, Erbitux, SU5416, Marimastat, Endostatin and Angiostatin. The report will also provide an update on the recent advances on vascular targeting, the next approach to inhibit angiogenesis. The progress made in gene therapy where only limited number of companies is in late stage clinical trials is also presented. Updates are also given for the development that occurs in the antisense technology, where the drug Affinitek recently failed to prolong the life of lung cancer patients. However, several big drug companies have partnered with antisense drug developers in the hope that the technology might prove successful. Furthermore, the report gives an overview on the most recent advancements made by pharmaceutical companies in their choice of therapeutic targets, to induce the apoptotic pathways. A field where a number of antisense related companies play an important role, most notorious the antisense agent Genasense, which targets Bcl-2.

There are several novel strategies emerging. In this report, new knowledge has been compiled and the achievements during the latest years of development have been assessed. Additionally, information from several important recent cancer meetings (Asco 2003, Aacr 2003, ASH 2002, Visiongain's Cancer drugs 2003 and Barnett International's Emerging Cancer Therapeutics) is also included in the analysis. The latest patents filings (PCT) in this field have also been analyzed to broaden the perspective on anticancer R&D activity. Other subjects that included are Endpoints and markers of efficacy, Patient populations, Regulatory issues, Adjuvant and boost regime strategies.

Report Contents:

Table of Contents

- Methodology 7
- Introduction & Market Outlooks 8
- From Growth To Death - From Cell Surface To The Nucleus 8
- Historical FDA Approvals for Cancer Therapeutics 16
- Clinical trial design, endpoints & markers 18
- Toxicity: Safety & Tolerability 19
- Efficacy: Add-On Drug 21
- Discussions for a shift in cancer trial design 23
- Alliances & Deal Values 31
- Real case scenarios 33
- Novel screening technologies 40
- The Omics Era 40
- Genomic Information Providers 41
- Selection Of Target In Drug Discovery 43
- Therapeutic Value, Essential In Lead Optimization 46
- Virtual Library Screening 47
- Drug Discovery Through Three-Dimensional Information 49
- In Silico Evaluation Of ADME-Tox/Efficacy 54
- New Targets 59
- Power In Combinatorial Synthesis 61
- From High- Throughput Screening To High-Content Screening 64
- Aptamer In Drug Discovery 68
- Cytostatic Agents, A Need For Longer-Term Model System 70
- Explanation To The Anti-Angiogenetic Clinical Failures 72
- A need to develop new mouse models 73
- RNA interference-mediated inhibition 75
- Progress in Assay Development 76
- Early Discovery 78
- Targeted therapeutics 86
- Endothelin Receptor Antagonists 89
- Protein Kinase Inhibitors 91
- Inflicting DNA Synthesis 100
- Targeting Hormone Action 102
- Apoptotic Inducers 110
- Other Targeting Strategies 114
- AntiAngiogenes 116
- Top Competitive Companies 120
- Anti-Angiogenic Drugs With Orphan Drug Approval 123
- Major Impediments In Phase III Trials 124
- Companies Filing Investigational New Drug Applications 125
- General Shortcomings for VEGF Targeting 127
- Monoclonal Antibodies For VEGFr/EGFr Inhibition 129
- Antibodies vs. small molecules 140
- Disappointments For Targeting VEGF Receptors 153
- Endostatin, Angiostatin and Squalamine, In Late Stage Trial. 161
- The Next Approach Vascular Targeting 167
- Integrins As Target For Therapeutic Intervention. 178
- Revision On Matrix MetalloProteinases 186
- Potential Window For Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors 190
- Apoptotis 194
- Overview of Apoptosis Therapies in Clinical Trial 201
- Therapeutic Importance of TRAIL-Receptor 205
- Approaches To Bypass the Bcl-2 Pathway 211
- Inhibitors of Apoptosis Proteins 216
- Caspase Inhibitors 221
- Multipathway Regulators 225
- Targeting Cell Cycle Control Elements 229
- Antisense Yet An Unproven Technology. 230
- Genasense The Most Promising Antisense Candidate 232
- Gene Therapy 249
- Viral Vectors 249
- Synthetic Delivery Systems 265
- A new approach to gene delivery 270
- Gene Therapy Strategies: with some reservations 270
- Immune Enhancement Gene Therapy Projects 274
- Non-Immune Enhancement Gene Therapy Projects 291
- Monoclonal antibodies 305
-270 industry related R&D projects 305
 - MAbs Directed Against Tumor Antigens 310
- Anti-hormonal antibodies 314
- Receptor blocking and anti-angiogenesis 316
- Conjugated Monoclonal Antibodies 328
- CD-Molecules as Targets for Antibodies 335
- Monoclonal antibodies with primary immuno-stimulatory effects 341
- Other Monoclonal Antibodies 343
- Cancer vaccines: active immunotherapy 345
- Vaccine Approaches: from cells to genes 348
- Tumor Antigens 352
- Antigen Discovery 356
- Antigen Delivery and Presentation 363
- Specific Tumor Antigens 366
- Tumor Cell Targeting 384
- Eliciting an Immune Response With Anti-idiotypic Antibodies
  385
- Cell Therapy: Dendritic-cell Based & Cancer-Cell Based Therapies 389
- T-Cells 391
- NK-Cells 392
- Other Cell Therapies 392
- Company Platforms 402
- Improving the Immune Response 411
- Specific Antigen Processing Technologies Increasing Antigen
  Presentation 412
- Finally 415
- Immunostimmulation: more than 150 industry related R&D projects 427
- Overview 427
- Cytokines: boosting a host's immune response 433
- Interleucines & Interferones: new strategy arising 437
- Immunomolecules Enhancing the Immune System Efficacy 440
- Other Immunostimulating Molecules 443
- Different adjuvants 444
- Cells with immunostimulatory properties 446
- Ex. vivo Stimulated Immune Cells 447
- Different Biological Drugs 448
- Monoclonal antibodies with primary immuno-stimulatory effects 453
- General comments on immunostimulatory therapeutics 454
- Conclusion 458
- Disclaimer 461

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c2793