Few cancer drugs getting US approval

Although the number of new cancer drugs entering clinical development more than doubled between the early 1990s and mid-2000s, only 8% of candidates with known fates won marketing approval in the USA, according to a study recently completed by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

This approval rate compares with an overall US marketing clearance rate of 20% for all new medicinal products that began human testing in 1993-97, according to Tufts CSDD.

Longer time for clearance