Portfolio Strategy & Planning

A top US based pharmaceutical company focusing on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for treatment of oncology, was looking to conduct due diligence in the post-PD-(L)1 landscape, to explore the market opportunity for its own early assets in this space. With several Pharma companies focusing on the Immuno-oncology speciality, PD-(L)1 market has become rather saturated, thereby sparking new interest towards post-PD-(L)1 setting, and its underlying prospects from a clinical development perspective.

This treatment setting within the post-PD-(L)1 setting is interesting owing to pre-specified patient selection criteria such as patients responding to PD-(L)1 therapies (often referred to as “Responders”) vs. those who don’t respond (Non-Responders), also categorised as Relapsed, Refractory or progressed patients. Furthermore, a comprehensive understanding of the definitions by clinical trial investigators vis a vis the communication used by the company is necessary to derive the exact meaning of each term used for such patient stratification

With several looming questions, the client’s Insights Team sought to answer the following business questions –

• To understand the evolving landscape of treatment post-PD-(L)1 across solid tumors
• To identify the emerging trends / competitors in post PD-(L)1 oncology
• To recommend the most potential and promising indication for investigation in post-PD-1 setting

The DataZymes team followed a systematic approach to prioritize indications based on clinical attractiveness

A comprehensive database identifying each clinical trial being studied in post- PD-(L)1 setting. This included:

• Identification of the relevant solid tumors wherein PD-(L)1 therapies are considered the Standard of Care
• Segmentation of clinical trials relevant to analysis, based on further deep-dive into its inclusion & exclusion criteria

Presented high level analytics to highlight specific trends and insights

• Helped in shedding light into the overall potential within the post- PD(L)-1 setting with the key indications which is investigated the most
• Further insights into the most explored MOA, the combination therapies that are being studied, key players developing in the space, as well as other details such as clinical efficacy and safety benchmarks

Based on the findings and messages, the following were the actionable insights derived:

• The percentage of success or failure of the client molecule in the proposed indication and patient segment
• Competition intensity – Threats and challenges by indication