Invention: Next-generation cancer treatments and breakthroughs in laboratory genetics
Scientific understanding of the genetic and cellular causes of cancer and other diseases has taken a quantum leap thanks to German molecular biologist Axel Ullrich. In a research career spanning four decades, Ullrich has pioneered new classes of medical treatment – including growth-inhibiting drugs for breast, intestinal and kidney cancer.
Prior to Ullrich's new methods, doctors had been searching
for therapies that target cancer without causing the damage to healthy tissue that
chemotherapy and radiation do. Based on new insight into signal transduction - the
processes by which cells in the human body communicate - Ullrich developed
next-generation drugs that stop cancer at the root by disrupting those cellular
communication processes. Over the past 20 years, pharmaceuticals brought to
market by Ullrich have included Herceptin, which is effective against breast
cancer caused by the HER2 oncogene, a genetic trigger that Ullrich discovered,
and a "tumour-starving" drug called Sunitinib.
Respected as an international authority in his field, Ullrich has held key positions at pharmaceutical development companies including Genentech. He has also spearheaded a new school of genetic research focused on signal transduction as director of the Molecular Biology department at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Ullrich's breakthroughs came as early as 1977, with the world's first transfer of the human insulin gene into bacteria, which spawned the world's first genetically engineered drug, recombinant human insulin, in 1982.
Societal benefit
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer to affect women, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide over 508 000 women succumbed to the disease in 2011. While survival rates have greatly improved over the past decade - they currently stand at 80% or higher in North America, Sweden and Japan - treatment of the disease can take a heavy toll on patients, especially because of the side effects of chemotherapy. Patients that test positive for certain genetic markers now benefit from targeted therapies of unprecedented efficacy, based on Ullrich's key insights into the genetic causes of disease formation.
Released in 1998, Ullrich's anti-breast cancer drug has been found to decrease tumour recurrence by 50% in women whose tumours express the HER2 oncogene. However, while Ullrich's findings provide the foundation for targeted therapies, scientists are only beginning to understand the full scope of human DNA. Currently, more than 1 800 disease genes have been identified and more than 2 000 genetic tests have become available, yet there are a total of 20 000 genes in the human genome. A fervent advocate of advancing understanding of disease-causing genes, Ullrich supports the search for further genetic markers of cancers through global research initiatives such as the Singapore Oncogenome Project.
Economic benefit
Aside from holding key positions in commercial drug development at international pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech, Ullrich has launched several successful start-up companies, including Sugen in 1991 (bought by Pfizer), Axxima Pharmaceuticals in 1998 (now GPC Biotech AG), U3 Pharma in 2001 (now Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd.), Kinaxo Biotechnologies GmbH in 2005 (now part of Evotec AG) and Blackfield AG in 2012.
Ullrich's next-generation pharmaceuticals have proven to be blockbuster drugs. Herceptin has ranked among the top 50 medications, with annual sales of up to EUR 6.3 billion before the patent expired in 2014. Sunitinib, marketed by Pfizer, is poised to generate annual sales of up to EUR 1.5 billion by 2018.
The world market for cancer drugs is expected to see considerable growth from EUR 72 billion in 2015 to EUR 103 billion by 2020. Kinase inhibitor drugs for treating cancer - a field pioneered by Ullrich - are expected to net approximately EUR 29 billion annually by 2019.
