As R&D and marketing unite, NME numbers rise: study

By September 30, the US Food and Drug Administration's New MolecularEntity approvals in 2003 totaled 15, suggesting the full-year total will be nearly 20% higher than in 2002. This is the result of a growing trend in the industry to break down the barriers between R&D and marketing and unite the two functions toward achieving common goals, says a new report from Cutting Edge Information.

Several industry leaders have, in recent years, taken steps to eliminate the geographical, cultural and political barriers between their R&D and commercial functions, which they found to be significantly hindering their productivity in the 1990s, says the study, which adds that this year's approvals include potential blockbusters such as Bayer's Levitra (vardenafil) for erectile dysfunction and AstraZeneca's cholesterol-lowerer Crestor (rosuvastatin) and Iressa (gefitinib) for non-small cell lung cancer.

To obtain a free summary of the study, which looks at the increasing links between marketing and R&D, visit: www.pharmacommercialization.com