This Market Spotlight report covers the Neuroendocrine Tumors market, comprising key marketed and pipeline drugs, recent events and analyst opinion, clinical trials, probability of success, upcoming and regulatory events, patent information, a 10-year disease incidence forecast, and licensing and acquisition deals, as well as presenting drug-specific revenue forecasts.

Key Takeaways

• Datamonitor Healthcare estimates that in 2017, there were approximately 486,500 incident cases of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) worldwide, and forecasts that number to increase to 586,100 incident cases by 2026.
• Worldwide, the majority of NETs in 2017 were malignant carcinoid tumors or neuroendocrine carcinomas. The approved drugs in the NETs space focus on targets such as norepinephrine (noradrenaline), radiopharmaceutical, mammalian target of rapamycin/mTORC, tyrosine hydroxylase, somatostatin receptors, FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3, KIT/c-KIT, platelet-derived growth factor receptor, VEGF receptor, ganglioside GD2, and tryptophan hydroxylase. These drugs are predominantly administered via the oral, intravenous, and subcutaneous routes, while one product is available in an intramuscular formulation.
• The majority of industry-sponsored drugs in active clinical development for NETs are in Phase I, with only one product in Phase III.
• Therapies in the pipeline for NETs focus on a wide variety of targets. The largest proportion of these therapies are administered intravenously, with the remainder being oral, subcutaneous, intranasal, and intratumoral formulations.
• The only high-impact upcoming event in the NETs space is topline Phase III trial results for sulfatinib. The overall likelihood of approval of a Phase I solid tumors asset is 5.6%, and the average probability a drug advances from Phase III is 40%. Drugs, on average, take 9.5 years from Phase I to approval, compared to 9.3 years in the overall oncology space.
• There have been only seven licensing and asset acquisition deals involving NETs drugs during 2014–19. The $115m exclusive licensing agreement signed in November 2017 between NanoCarrier and VBL Therapeutics for the development, commercialization, and supply of VB-111 (ofranergene obadenovec) in Japan was the only deal with a disclosed value.
• The distribution of clinical trials across Phase I–IV indicates that the majority of trials for NETs have been in the early and midphases of development, with 77% of trials in Phase I–II, and only 23% in Phase III–IV.
• The US has a substantial lead in the number of NETs clinical trials globally. The UK leads the major EU markets, while China has the top spot in Asia.
• Novartis has the highest number of completed clinical trials for NETs, with 17 trials.