Cancer vaccines set to generate $35bn sales annually

High incidence rates mean that the market for cancer vaccines is huge.

The market for cancer vaccines is huge, and growing - the World Health Organization (WHO) claims that the disease was responsible for 7.6 million deaths in 2008, but believes that the annual fatalities will reach 13.1 million by 2030.

In a Reuters report, banking organisation Citigroup forecast that these kinds of preventative treatments would generate sales of up to US$35 billion annually over the next decade, indicating it will be a lucrative sub-sector.

Many pharmaceutical companies are interested in gaining a share while also making advancements to improve the prognosis for millions of patients. Roche, which claims to "focus on developing medicines and diagnostics that will help patients live longer, better lives" is one of them.

The company has been working on a variety of treatments, and SMi has announced that scientist of tumor immunology at Roche Chris Lampert will be presenting findings of experimentation at the Cancer Vaccines conference in September.