As of September 17, 940 Immuno-Oncology (IO) products were in clinical development, while 1,064 were in preclinical development. There are 3,042 active interventional clinical trials evaluating clinical-stage immunotherapies, covering all types of common cancers and the majority of less-common cancers.

The IO drugs in development can be grouped into six categories: immunomodulators that act on inhibiting or activating molecules expressed by T cells; immunomodulators that release antitumor immunity by acting on other immune cells or the tumor immune environment; cancer vaccines that incite antitumor immunity that is antigen specific; cell therapies focused on programming immune cells to attack cancer cells; oncolytic viruses dependent on the direct killing of a tumor and the activation of antitumor immunity; and CD3-targeted bispecific antibodies that lead T cells to the targeted tumor cells for direct killing.

The 940 IO drugs moderate 271 different targets and are owned by 462 companies or higher education institutes. However, of the 940 products, almost 50% modulate 40 targets, indicating the high level of duplications in the field. Among countries, China leads in CAR-T-cell therapies, with 46 Chinese companies owning 98 clinical-stage products, as opposed to 22 US companies owning 51 clinical-stage products. There has also been a rise in non-industry sponsored trials, such as those involving individual higher education centers, government agencies or nonprofit organizations.

Source: Cancer Research Institute