Glioma
This group comprises anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastoma multiforme. Whereas the median overall survival of anaplastic (WHO grade III) gliomas is approximately 3 years, glioblastoma multiforme has a poor median overall survival of c. 15 months.
Medivir
In 2016 Medivir announced that it would focus its research on cancers of high unmet medical need, where existing therapies are not very successful and there is a great opportunity to provide real benefit to patients who have few treatment options. Some cancer types of particular interest to Medivir include hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and pancreatic cancer, which are all highly aggressive diseases with poor treatment options and very low overall survival rates on the best current treatments today. HCC is a liver cancer derived from hepatocyte cells. HCC is one of the most common cancers worldwide and late stage HCC has a mean overall survival of only 9–11 months on the best available treatment today. Medivir motivated the transition from its origin in retroviral drugs to oncology by it being a logical extension of their expertise in liver disease from earlier work on hepatitis C to this area.