![Pharmaceutical manufacturers have found that using companion diagnostics during drug development improves the success rate of therapeutics being tested in clinical trials. [iStock/anna1311]](https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/355.jpeg "A doctor is taking blood for test.")
Companion diagnostics (CDx), in vitro diagnostic devices or imaging tools that provide information essential to the safe and effective use of a corresponding therapeutic product, have become indispensable tools for oncologists. As a result, analysts expect the global CDx market to reach $8.73 billion by 2019, up from from $3.14 billion in 2014.
Use of CDx during a clinical trial to guide therapy can improve treatment responses and patient outcomes by identifying and predicting patient subpopulations most likely to respond to a given treatment.
These tests not only indicate the presence of a molecular target, but can also reveal the off-target effects of a therapeutic, predicting toxicities and adverse effects associated with a drug.
For pharma manufacturers, using CDx during drug development improves the success rate of drugs being tested in clinical trials. In a study estimating the risk of clinical trial failure during non-small cell lung cancer drug development in the period between 1998 and 2012 investigators analyzed trial data from 676 clinical trials with 199 unique drug compounds.
The data showed that Phase III trial failure proved the biggest obstacle to drug approval, with an overall success rate of only 28%. But in biomarker-guided trials, the success rate reached 62%. The investigators concluded from their data analysis that the use of a CDx assay during Phase III drug development substantially improves a drug’s chances of clinical success.
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