Antibodies Represent A Major Growth Area In Cancer Therapy
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Antibody-based therapies are at the forefront of new cancer treatments with monoclonal antibody therapies like Avastin, Herceptin, and Erbitux leading the way. Avastin, introduced in 2004, had 2005 sales of $1.3 billion and grew to approximately $7 billion annually. CG201 has the potential to serve a comparably large market. Cancer vaccines are also beginning to move toward market introduction. Provenge, a vaccine for the treatment of prostate cancer, recently received FDA approval in the U.S.
Most existing treatments have serious side effects, which are sometimes life-threatening. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments damage healthy tissues as well as cancer cells. New strategies for attacking cancer continue to be tested, but most have shown limited benefits or unacceptable side effects.
New Approaches Are Needed
The unsatisfied demand in cancer therapy requires radically new products that avoid harming healthy cells while:
| 1. | Neutralizing a biological target that is essential for tumor survival, growth, or invasiveness, but is not required for normal body functions |
2. |
Enhancing the patient’s immune response to cancer cells, enabling the body’s natural cancer-fighting systems to be more effective |
3. |
Supporting the effectiveness of other therapeutic agents |
CG Therapeutics’ CG201 vaccine stimulates anti-hCG antibodies that achieve all three of these objectives.
