Looks like all the ASCO talk is about drugs developed to target the molecular drivers of cancer growth, like Pfizer's crizotinib and Roche's vemurafenib.

Great potential - Crizotinib for lung cancer showed truly impressive results in patients whose tumors express an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene.

Downside - ALK is thought to be a driver in only 3 to 5 percent of the cancers.

Yet Pfizer appears non-fuzzed about the number of people that can benefit from its drug, but rather its 'personalised' efficacy.

So take note you who are intending to out-license - Pharma is going in a targeted direction for example requiring biomarker studies to better match experimental compounds with the right patients. Most promising late-stage cancer drugs are in some way targeting specific molecular drivers of tumors.

I think this will be the way things will go too - true benefit for patients, real benefit for insurers who will pay for the right therapy for the right patients, expedited review, premium pricing and probably orphan status and small sales forces / promotion for the drug.

Finally, perhaps we will worry less about the market than the efficacy-- but is this true only for highly prices onco drugs??