LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM NOVEMBER 2014
36
COMBINATION
CANCER
IMMUNOTHERAPY
—
A
VIRTUAL
ROUNDTABLE
By
W.
Koberstein
W A Y N E K O B E R S T E I N , Executive Editor
L L E W K E L T N E R , M.D., Ph.D., Roundtable Moderator
COMBINATION
— A VIRTUAL
ROUNDTABLE
We are all partners. Life is partnership — life and death. As individuals cast
at birth into a vast net, we habitually ignore this web of connections as mere
background, but it is always there, whether we cooperate or struggle against it.
Like greatness, some people and the organizations they build seek alliances as
the very stuff of life. Others have partnering thrust upon them.
With the new rise of cancer immunotherapy, the use of combinations is an
emerging paradigm that demands a new kind of collaboration among all the key
players, from key opinion leaders to companies to regulators to payers. What
looks like competition between immuno-oncology mechanisms and therapies is
that and more. Everyone wants a place in the ideal combination, but to get there,
each one must collaborate with the others, if only in conversation and debate.
Our series of virtual roundtable discussions on combination cancer
immunotherapy enters a new phase with this installment. Part Three moves from
the KOLs in the first two parts to the leaders of companies developing advanced
cancer immunotherapies and all vying for a place in the coming combinations.
One of our goals was to compare the views of KOLs and companies by enlisting
both groups in the roundtable panel and posing essentially the same set of
questions to everyone.
A SERIES ON THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF USING
NEW AGENTS TO RALLY THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AGAINST CANCER
CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY
leaders
ROUNDTABLE