No sign of revival in R&D productivity
pharmafile | June 30, 2010 | News story | Research and Development | drug development, industry, research
New data on the performance of the pharmaceutical industry shows efforts to raise productivity have not yet made an impact.
The sector is coping with the patent expiry of a generation of blockbuster products that helped it grow over the last decade – and struggling to find equally successful drugs with which to replace them.
The new statistics come from The 2010 Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, compiled by CMR International, and show new drugs launched over the last five years accounted for less than 7% of industry sales in 2009.
All the industry’s biggest players have been cutting costs and restructuring divisions across their businesses, including R&D, in an effort to be more productive and lean.
As a result total R&D spending has dropped slightly, down 0.3% in 2009 after a 6.6 % rise the year before and rapid growth seen in earlier years.
Analysts expect this spending slow down to continue in 2010 and beyond, as big pharma looks to rely more on external partnerships in the early stages of development, whilst making late-stage development more streamlined.
A total of 26 new molecular entities were launched in 2009, an increase on the 20-year low of 21 recorded in 2008. Nevertheless, the total number of launches last year was around half that of the all-time peak level seen in 1997.
“The latest data shows that poor productivity in 2009 continued to be exacerbated by the low success rate for drugs in late stage development and a decline in sales from new drugs launched within the last five years,” said Hans Poulsen, head of consulting at CMR International.
“The increase in NME launches compared with 2008 offers some positive news. However, with data indicating a continued drop in overall success rates, it remains to be seen if the industry can reverse a 10-year trend in declining R&D output,” he added.
CMR also revealed that the number of drug projects terminated at the phase III stage had doubled in the period 2007-2009 compared with 2004-2006.
Andrew McConaghie
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