EBV-associated
malignancies
Serious disease burden
According to the Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2017 data, 270,000 EBV-associated malignancies cases were recorded per year worldwide. EBV-malignancy can be classified into three main cancer types, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), EBV-associated gastric carcinoma (EBVaGC), and lymphoid malignancies. Notably, NPC contributes to ~40% of the total cases of EBV-associated malignancies cases.
Current treatment options
Systemic chemotherapy remains as the major treatment modality in the management of primary, recurrent, and metastatic NPC. Whenever systemic chemotherapy is applied, patients may suffer from acute toxicity including hearing loss, swallowing problems and others; and late toxicity including cranial neuropathy, temporal lobe necrosis, aspiration pneumonia etc. Therefore, improvement in selective drug delivery is imperative for enhancing efficacy, lowering toxicity as well as giving the patient a better quality of life during and after the treatment.
Orphan drug potentials
Among the ~129,000 new cases per year of EBV-associated NPC worldwide, more than 70% are reported from South China and Southeast Asia. Notably Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong Province, including Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Guangzhou have the highest age-standardized incidence rates (12.8-25 per 100,000 per year) of NPC worldwide.
Due to the low incidence rate of NPC in the Europe and USA, only a few research laboratories or pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs that are targeting NPC. As a result, these drugs are regarded as “Orphan drugs”. This in turn represents an untouched and protected market for us to push forward the drug development and attract investors in the Greater Bay Area.