The Phase III PROpel study has shown that a combination of AstraZeneca's Lynparza and Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga significantly delayed disease progression as a first-line treatment for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

From clinical trials to in-person sales calls, the pharmaceutical value chain has been tested by the COVID-19 pandemic, but has held up. Nevertheless, recent friction within this chain may be more than a passing irritation.

Big pharmaceutical franchises may be recovering from the pandemic, but the extent of the untreated backlog of cancer patients from 2020 is still an important unknown driver even after second-quarter earnings season, and smaller cancer companies may still be bearing the brunt of COVID-19’s effects.

Factors in addition to the rejuvenation of pharmaceutical revenues and biotechnology product failures are likely to pull in opposite directions at the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.