Therapy Analysis - Pharma R&D Annual Review
The 2007 pipeline - more clinical R&D than ever
So what is the architecture of the current pipeline?
Unusually, the big increase in pipeline size is not due to significantly more preclinical compounds being reported. Rather, and more encouragingly, it is at the clinical stages where the big increases occur (see Graph 2). Amazingly, there has been almost a 20% increase in the number of drugs in Phase I trials over the past year, whereas the figure for Phase II studies rises by a similarly remarkable 8%. These increases do not seem to suggest an industry which is being held back by its inability to launch sufficient drugs. As in the past though, the picture is less rosy at Phase III in terms of an overall increase in numbers of drugs, but the rise from 423 to 462 is a 9% increment, and a vast improvement on recent years where this figure has remained resolutely flat. This is the most optimistic picture of an improving pipeline we have seen for years.
[Note - the figure for Launched only includes drugs which are marketed but are still being developed for further territories or indications]
