The checkpoint inhibitors market consists of sales of the immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs and related services by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that produce checkpoint inhibitors for treating cancer. A checkpoint inhibitor is a drug that blocks proteins that stop the body’s immune system from killing the cancer cells. One type of cell in the immune system that fights the cancer cells are T-cells. T cells have proteins on them that turn on immune response and other proteins that turn it off. These are called checkpoints. Some checkpoints help T-cells to become active while others help T-cells to switch off. When cancer cells produce high levels of proteins, the switch off checkpoints restrict the immune responses from being strong and sometimes even stops the T-cells from killing the cancer cells. When the checkpoints are blocked by the checkpoint inhibitor from binding with its partner proteins, this allows the T-cells to kill the cancer cells.
The global checkpoint inhibitors market is expected to decline from $15.44 billion in 2019 to $15.20 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -1.50%. The decline is mainly due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of industries and other commercial activities resulting in operational challenges. The entire supply chain has been disrupted, impacting the market negatively. The market is then expected to recover and reach $29.77 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 25.11%.
