Therapy Analysis - Pharma R&D Annual Review
The 2008 pipeline - growth across the phases
Upon review, today’s pipeline shows clearly that expansion has occurred across all phases (graph 2 [Note: The figure for Launched only includes drugs which are marketed but are still being developed for further territories or indications]). Interestingly, given that our collaboration with TrialTrove will have mainly improved coverage at the clinical phases, the biggest area of growth is at the preclinical stage. This is to some extent also inflated by improved editorial procedures, but this alone cannot account for the more than 20% increase in activity, and therefore suggests that R&D is genuinely in a healthy upward swing.
The biggest rise in the clinical area is at Phase I, which a 23% increase – a very significant figure. For the industry, it is encouraging to see at last a sustained jump at Phase III (in previous years, increases at Phases I and II have not fed through to Phase III due to high failure rates at Phase II). While we must continue to
bear in mind the fact that these figures may have received a boost from our collaboration, it is still gratifying to see this number rise (+17%), since these compounds will likely form the bulk of the first launches that may come through in 2009 and 2010.
