Drug development
Not So Much 'R' and Not So Much 'D'
28/06/11 15:43 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Duff Wilson at The New York Times Prescriptions blog suggested that outside business deals are keeping the pipelines of the major drug companies healthy, instead of internal research projects as many companies such as Pfizer are slashing spending on R&D. Fitch Ratings indicates that primarily acquisition and licensing deals may allow the major pharma companies to reproduce meeting last year's level of 21 new drugs approved in the United States and Europe. S. Pelech laments that at a time when we are learning so much about the mechanisms of human disease that our progress on actually treating them is steadily waning - large pharma had 25 of their new drugs approved in 2009, and 24 approved in 2008. According to Thomas Reuters for 2010, there was a 47% drop in phase I human trials, more than a 50% decline in phase II studies, and a doubling of the rate of early termination of phase III human trials. Read More...