How to share the $100 billion market pie? Innovation is king. Oncolytic bacteria become "potential stock" in the anti-tumour track.

Health is an investment that never goes out of fashion, and the biopharmaceutical industry is gaining attention in the new century. In recent years, the global and Chinese biologics market has proliferated, and the antineoplastic market has also grown significantly, attracting more and more players to come and "share the cake".

Biologics are pharmaceutical products manufactured using biological methods and sources designed to replicate the activity of natural substances such as enzymes, antibodies or hormones. The main types of biologics include antibodies, fusion proteins, antibody-drug couples (ADCs), recombinant proteins, vaccines, gene therapy and cell therapy.

Professional research institutions expect that the domestic and international biologics market will continue to grow for a considerable period in the future, building on its current rapid growth.

Statistics show that the domestic biologics market is expected to reach RMB 312 billion in 2019, RMB 712.5 billion in 2024 and RMB 130.29 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18% between 2019 and 2024 and 10.6% between 2024 and 2030, driven by growing market demand. It represents a CAGR of 18% between 2019 and 2024 and 10.6% between 2024 and 2030.

In terms of the global market, the global biologics market will be US$286.4 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$456.7 billion in 2024 and US$768 billion in 2030. According to the professional report, it is growing at a CAGR of 9.8% between 2019 and 2024 and 9.0% between 2024 and 2030, according to the professional report.

Among them, the market size of anti-tumour drugs also continues to grow.

The oncology market is an important segment and part of the biologics market, focusing on discovering and commercialising therapeutic agents for cancer. As an influential group of diseases that have been a global scourge for many years, cancer is a process in which cells divide and multiply uncontrollably, i.e. a tumour "turns" into a malignant tumour.

Cancer types are usually classified as either haematological malignancies or solid tumours and are a significant cause of death worldwide. The overall five-year survival rate for cancer patients in China is 40.5%.

In comparison, the overall five-year survival rate for cancer patients in the US is 67.1%. In 2019, the top five most common types of cancer in China were lung, stomach, colorectal, liver and thyroid cancers, while the top five most common types of cancer in the US were breast, lung, prostate, colorectal and skin cancers.

Currently, the number of new cancer cases continues to rise globally and in China, with 18.5 million new cancer cases worldwide in 2019, expected to reach 21 million in 2024 and 24.1 million in 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% from 2019 to 2024 and 2.4% from 2024 to 2030.

Domestically, China has 4.4 million new cancer cases in 2019 and is expected to reach 5.0 million in 2024 and 5.7 million in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 2.5% from 2019 to 2024 and 2.2% from 2024 to 2030.

The global market for oncology drugs and the oncology drug markets in China and the US are growing strongly, well ahead of the growth in new cancer cases, and are expected to continue to grow at a high rate in the near future.

Statistics show that the global market for oncology drugs will be US$143.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$244.4 billion in 2024 and US$391.3 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2019 to 2024 and 8.2% from 2024 to 2030.

In China, the market for oncology drugs was US$26.4 billion in 2019, and industry reports expect this figure to reach US$53.1 billion in 2024 and US$95.5 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 15% from 2019 to 2024 and 10.3% from 2024 to 2030.

The US market for oncology drugs was US$67.8 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$115.2 billion in 2024 and US$179.7 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2019 to 2024 and 7.7% from 2024 to 2030.

Tumour immunotherapy has become the dominant paradigm for next-generation cancer treatment.

The cancer treatment paradigm has evolved over the years. The development of tumour immunotherapy has been particularly influential, providing a valuable treatment option for many cancer patients by improving the outcome of various cancer types and is now the next central mainstream cancer treatment paradigm after surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Tumour immunotherapy stimulates the patient's immune system to generate or enhance an anti-tumour immune response to control or eradicate cancer cells. Due to its ability to provide durable remission while often being well-tolerated in several patients with advanced cancer, the discovery and development of tumour immunotherapy in recent years has marked a milestone in cancer treatment and is expected further to drive the growth of the global oncology drug market.

Because tumour immunotherapy works through the patient's immune system, it has fewer side effects than traditional oncology treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

In terms of market size, the global oncology immunotherapy market will increase from US$9.6 billion in 2016 to US$35.1 billion by 2020. The global market is expected to reach US$108.2 billion in 2025 and US$229.8 billion in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 25.3% and 16.3% from 2020 to 2025 and 2025 to 2030, respectively.

Statistics show that tumour immunotherapy will account for 23.4% of the global oncology drug market revenue in 2020 and is expected to account for approximately 47.6% of the global oncology market in 2030.

The domestic oncology immunotherapy market will reach RMB14.8 billion by 2020 and is expected to grow to RMB88.9 billion by 2025 and RMB272.8 billion by 2030. it is growing at a CAGR of 66.8% and 16.4% from 2019 to 2024 and 2024 to 2030.

According to the data, oncology immunotherapy accounts for 7.5% of the total oncology drug market in China in 2020 and is expected to grow, accounting for approximately 39.9% of the Chinese oncology market by 2030.

Oncolytic bacteria at the forefront of innovative developments in cancer immunotherapy

In fact, since the 19th century, when William Coley, the "father of tumour immunotherapy", put into practice the great idea of using bacteria to treat cancer and developed the first cancer vaccine, Coley's Toxin, tumour immunotherapy has been an essential branch of development since the birth of the concept. Since its inception, tumour immunotherapy has been accompanied by the shadow of a significant development - bacteriotherapy.

Bacterial therapy itself has undergone a long period of exploration since its inception. It was only when oncolytic bacteria, which represent the most cutting-edge technology in the field, were unveiled on the stage of history that bacteriotherapy became widely recognised. The history of lysing bacteria has also seen the rise of tumour immunotherapy.

As research in bacteriophage therapy continues, it has been found that oxygen concentration can be one of the critical signals for bacteria to sense the tumour microenvironment, with parthenogenic or exclusively anaerobic bacteria exhibiting a high capacity for tumour colonisation, circumventing the risk of escape of aerobic bacteria and acting as natural tumour targeting vectors. However, the tumour targeting and therapeutic safety of bacteria often cannot be achieved simultaneously, requiring researchers to target anti-tumour bacteria Modification.

The use of genetically engineered bacterial mutants to reduce virulence not only limits the pathogenicity of the bacteria and reduces tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced infectious shock induced by lipid A stimulation, but also preserves the tumour-targeting and amplification capabilities of the bacteria, compared to traditional inactivation and attenuation methods.

In 2011, HKND core R&D team achieved the first efficient programming technology of Salmonella Lambda-RED and established the basis of synthetic biology modification of Salmonella, which solved the biosafety risk problem during the research and development of bacteriophage therapy. After establishing the basis of synthetic biology modification of Salmonella, the company successfully invented a genetically engineered strain of Salmonella typhimurium YB1, the world's first lysogenic bacterial vector product invented through synthetic biology technology modification.

In May 2021, a paper on the mechanism of YB1 technology was published in Nature Communications, a sub journal of Nature, and the team's research showed that the safety and efficacy of this oncolytic bacterial product had been validated. With the successful introduction of the lysozyme vector YB1, a new era of bacterial therapy has been ushered in, with the lysozyme YB1 becoming a cutting edge development in emerging cancer therapies.

Bacterial therapy is now a rising star in the field of cancer immunotherapy. After more than a century of exploration and development, bacteriophage therapy is about to explode and become a vital force in the rise of cancer immunotherapy, and the biotech companies that are first in this field may be able to compete for a share of the whole market in the future, and we will strive to do the same.