Breast cancer pill could enter $12 billion market if trials succeed: Roche CEO

Roche's experimental oral drug for breast cancer giredestrant could enter a market worth at least 10 billion Swiss francs ($12 billion) a year if it clears two key trials on early treatment of the disease, the Swiss drugmaker's CEO said.

The pill belongs to a class known as oral selective oestrogen receptor degraders (SERD) to fight tumors that grow in response to oestrogen, which are estimated to account for up to 80% of all breast cancer cases.

"Giredestrant, if it works, would be a product in a market with a potential of 10 billion-plus," CEO Thomas Schinecker said on Wednesday at a media event in Mannheim, Germany, adding he was confident in the company's oncology efforts even as it diversifies into other therapy areas.

The market opportunity has also attracted rivals AstraZeneca and Sanofi, but the latter in 2022 stopped work on its oral SERD after two trial failures.

Schinecker added that two key giredestrant trials are expected to yield results next year and in 2026, one on newly-diagnosed breast cancer cases and the other on cases as an adjuvant treatment to surgery during an early stage of disease to reduce the risk of it spreading to other body parts.

The drugs are designed to work like AstraZeneca's established injectable breast cancer drug Faslodex.