Market Trends of Antibody Drug Conjugates Contract Manufacturing Industry
The Cleavable Linker Segment is Expected to Hold a Major Market Share in the Antibody-Drug Conjugates Contract Manufacturing Market
The growth of the segment is largely attributed to the extensive use of cleavable linker technology in antibody-drug conjugates and a greater number of cleavable linker-based authorized products. ADCs are now recognized as a main class of therapeutics for the clinical treatment of cancer. The properties of the linker between the payload and the antibody are proven to be vital to the success of an antibody-drug conjugate. Even though the antibody-drug conjugate linkers can be non-cleavable, the majority of antibody-drug conjugates in clinical development have specific release mechanisms to allow controlled linker cleavage at the target site and are termed "cleavable". The cleavable linkers are the major class of antibody-drug conjugate linkers. The main feature of cleavable linkers is that they are cleaved by environmental differences and particular lysosomal enzymes in response to extracellular and intracellular environments.
As per an article published by NCBI in April 2020, about two-thirds of antibody-drug conjugates used cleavable linkers in clinical trials. As per the article, Antibody-drug conjugates: Recent advances in linker chemistry, more than 80% of the clinically approved antibody-drug conjugates employ cleavable linkers.
The above-mentioned factors are expected to drive the demand for the growth of the segment studied during the forecast period.
North America is Expected to Hold a Significant Share in the Market During the Forecast Period.
Favorable government support in the United States related to the approval of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) is driving the growth of the market. As of May 2021, the USFDA had approved ten antibody-drug conjugates for breast cancer, urothelial cancer, myeloma, acute leukemia, and lymphoma.
Besides, the increase in the prevalence of cancer in the United States and the country's greater spending capacity for novel therapeutics are creating more demand for antibody-drug conjugates, which, in turn, is leading to increased investment in the development and manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates. According to the American Cancer Society, the estimated new numbers of cancer cases were 1.9 million in 2021 in the United States, and the same source projected that the new number of cancer cases would be 1.9 million in 2022.
Additionally, according to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is the most common cancer, with 290,560 new cases projected in the United States in 2022. Prostate cancer and lung cancer are the next most frequent cancers in the country. Increasing awareness about current therapies, the high prevalence of cancer, significant R&D expenditure, and the presence of major players are supporting the market growth in the region. For instance, MilliporeSigma has deep expertise in relevant capabilities, including monoclonal antibodies, linkers, highly potent compounds, and conjugation technologies, and it continues to build on its end-to-end capabilities. The company is also excited to increase the number of commercial products produced at its facility in the United States, the first CDMO site approved for commercial ADC manufacturing in the United States.
Additionally, the key market players' investments and strategies are expected to drive the growth of the market. For instance, in September 2020, Merck announced a USD 59 million expansion of its ADC and HPAPI manufacturing capabilities at its facility near Wisconsin, United States. This investment is likely to allow large-scale manufacturing of increasingly potent compounds for therapies that have the potential to treat cancer.
Thus the above-mentioned factors are expected to drive the growth of the market studied in this region during the forecast period.
