Drug delivery improvements to enable a flexible care setting for monoclonal antibody medications in oncology -...

The substantial acceleration in healthcare spending together with the expenditures to manage the COVID19 pandemic demand drug delivery solutions that enable a flexible care setting for high-dose monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in oncology.

This expert opinion introduces an analogue-based framework applied to guide decision-making for associated product improvements for mAb medications that are either already authorized or in late-stage clinical development. The four pillars of this framework comprise (1) the drug delivery profile of current and emerging treatments in the market, (2) the needs and preferences of people treated with mAbs, (3) existing healthcare infrastructures, and (4) country-dependent reimbursement and procurement models. The following product optimization examples for mAb-based treatments are evaluated based on original research and review articles in the field: subcutaneous formulations, an established drug delivery modality to reduce parenteral dosing complexity, fixed-dose combinations, an emerging concept to complement combination therapy, and (connected) on-body delivery systems, an identified future opportunity to support dosing outside of a controlled healthcare institutional environment.

Leveraging existing synergies and learnings from other disease areas is a measure to reduce associated development and commercialization costs and thus to provide sustainable product offerings already at the initial launch of a medication.