Pfizer will purchase Array BioPharma for $10.4 billion. It hopes to expand its cancer portfolio with targeted therapies. This acquisition underscores the importance of cancer drugs to the pharmaceutical industry.
Because cancer drugs have saved or extended lives, they will grow commercially. Currently, they have a worldwide market of $138 billion. By 2024, sales could reach $237 billion.
Array has two drugs, Braftovi and Mektovi, that target genetic changes that can cause cancer. Pfizer believes that in addition to treating skin cancer they can assist in curing colon and rectal cancer.
Array and Pfizer have totally different profiles. Array has revenue of $174 million and a history of net losses. In 2018 Pfizer’s sales were $53.6 billion and profits of over $ 17 billion.
Cancer is the 21st-century’s black plague. The American Cancer society projects that cancer will strike close to 40% of men and kill slightly over 22%. They predict that 37% of women will get cancer, killing 19% of them. The good news is that overall, cancer death rates have declined, and the number of cancer survivors has increased.
Dr. Stephen Rosenberg, who wrote “Cancer: What You Need to Know,” provided the following insights:
Cancer is a disease caused by the unchecked growth of cells in the body. Cancer cells take up valuable space and resources in organs, leading to abnormal function of the normal cells of that organ.
Cancer is millions of diseases. It varies from person to person and even within the same person. The range of prognosis and patient survival times varies dramatically.
No organ or cell is immune from turning into cancer. Cancer, at its core, comes from cells, the building blocks of your body. The average human body is made up of 30-40 trillion cells. Each cell has a nucleus, which you can think of as the brain of the cell.
Stored in the nucleus is the DNA. DNA contains the genes that make up who you are. Cancer comes from mistakes made in copying the DNA.
A personal story
Let me share my personal story. In 2006 I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Until recently patients with CML had a five-year life expectancy. Fortunately, in 2001, the Food and Drug Administration approved Gleevec, a miracle drug. Today, someone with CML, who is in remission after two years of Gleevec treatment, has the same life expectancy as someone who does not have cancer.
In 2017 I underwent colon cancer surgery. My cancer stage is Phase 3. In speaking to the senior oncologist at Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. James Thomas, he said that if I can forestall cancer for five years, they expect to develop immunotherapy to beat it.
How have I reacted to the scourge of cancer? In 2015, I established the Eloise Werlin Park in memory of my late wife who died of breast cancer. In 2017 I led a cancer fundraiser team, Coming Together Against Cancer (www.ctac.life). We have raised close to $2 million for cancer research and funded more than 35 institutions and organizations. One-hundred percent of the donations pass through to the respective institutions, making CTAC a smart and responsible way to give.
As part of our cancer fundraising efforts, we have invited leading cancer experts from Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Center, Duke Cancer Center, John Hopkins Cancer Center, University of Florida Cancer Center and Medical College of Wisconsin to discuss their state-of-the-art investigation efforts. They conduct research in such disparate areas as the brain, pancreas, breast and the thorax.
I am proud to say that our CTAC team does not deem our efforts as work but a “calling.” Our legacy will be that we have saved lives by funding extensive research efforts.
