Cancer Vaccine Landscape: A Review

Therapeutic Class Distribution of Cancer Vaccines

• There are currently 915+ cancer vaccine assets in development. Cellular, peptide, nucleic acid-based and viral vaccines comprise 86% of the total cancer vaccine landscape. The remaining 14% (grouped as ‘Other Vaccine Class’) is made up of assets with an unspecified vaccine class (6%), protein vaccines (5%), bacterial vaccines (3%) and yeast vaccines (<1%).

Drug Status of Cancer Vaccines

The majority of cancer vaccines on Beacon are currently active; 60% of assets have entered clinical trials, and just under a quarter are in preclinical development.

The space has seen eight approvals – half of which are prophylactic viral vaccines targeting HPV associated cancers, most noticeably Gardasil, Gardasil 9 and Cervarix which have received FDA and EMA approval.

The cancer vaccine landscape is currently dominated by cellular, peptide, nucleic acid-based and viral vaccines. The cellular vaccine class largely comprises dendritic cell vaccines due to the established nature of the field. Within nucleic acid-based vaccines, the space has currently shifted towards DNA vaccines, although this paradigm is likely to change given the recent successes of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines.

Half of approved assets are prophylactic viral vaccines for HPV associated cancer, with other vaccines classes gaining approvals but to a more limited extent.

Most cancer vaccines in the clinic are in phase 1 or 2 trials, although the large proportion of completed and active trials suggest this is a space that will continue to grow.