Fastest drug developers

Pharmaceutical companies that develop and launch new products faster than their peers perform consistently better across a number of dimensions, earn higher revenues, and have lower development costs, according to a newly-completed analysis from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, based in Boston, USA.

Between 2000 and 2005, drugs developed by the fastest companies each gained an average of $1.1 billion in incremental prescription revenue and saved a median of $30.0 million in out-of-pocket development costs, compared to those of the slowest drugmakers, Tufts CSDD reported. The findings were published in the September/ October Tufts CSDD Impact Report.

"Speed demon companies - the fastest drug developers - are consistently implementing efficient R&D practices across their portfolios," said Ken Getz, senior research fellow at Tufts CSDD and co-author of the study. "These companies have far less development and regulatory time variability, kill projects sooner, and are better at setting resource priorities. In a word, being fast on one project is good, but being consistently fast across the portfolio of projects is substantially better," noted Dr Getz.