Rachel Laing, Partner at Bionest
Olivier Lesueur, Partner at Bionest
Chapters:
0:00 New targets take us beyond PD1, PDL1
4:37 Will new entrants into CAR-T therapy get turn around time from 17 down to 2 days?
10:54 Turning biomarker development on its head
15:57 Won’t Rx companies ultimately have to pay the Dx bill?
20:17 Too much hype?
24:13 Looking ahead
Immuno oncology is now the dominant topic at Mendelspod. From shows with CEOs presenting new panels of predictive biomarker tests, to the firsts at the FDA with the CAR-T approvals as well as the first approval of a drug (Merck’s Keytruda) based on a common biomarker (MSI) rather than on a tumor type, to scientists discussing rare cells of the immune system, we had more podcasts on this topic than any other in 2017.
Rachel Laing and Olivier Lesueur are partners at Bionest, a global life science consulting firm. They work with companies on both the drug and the diagnostic sides of immuno oncology and are at ease switching back and forth between the two in today's discussion.
Complexity is the key word, says Rachel. Immuno oncology has turned the development of biomarkers on its head. Whereas formerly with a simple companion diagnostic, one starts with a very specific biomarker develops from there.
“With immuno oncology, it’s very different from that,” she says. "You’re not just dealing with a tumor cell and the signaling that goes on there, you’re dealing with the immune system. And there’s a lot of interplay between the tumor, the microenvironment, and the immune system. It’s unrealistic to think you could get away with just measuring one biomarker.”
What are the challenges for diagnostics companies in commercializing various biomarkers into ongoing testing for the same patient, or what’s becoming known as “real time oncology?”
Olivier addresses the great reimbursement irony in the field of drugs and diagnostics. Without the biomarker tests, the drugs may not work for the right patients. Yet the diagnostics companies receive pennies while the drug makers are getting away with— well, we all know that issue. Olivier says one drug maker recently preempted this problem by offering to just pay for the diagnostic up front in geographies where the diagnostic reimbursement was being questioned, which is good for everyone, including the patients, and shows some vision. This problem of undervaluing diagnostics has bedeviled our industry for a long time and becomes especially crucial with immuno therapies that rely on patient stratification and ongoing profiling.
In our final question about what we’ll see in the year ahead, it’s cautioned that though patients are seeing more and new therapy options, the complexity of treatment is becoming ever more demanding on some people who are already pretty sick.
