Drug approval success rates higher for smaller firms among top 50 pharmaceutical companies, according to Tufts CSDD

The top 10 pharmaceutical companies out of the world's top 50 have lower estimated overall clinical approval success rates than do smaller firms in that group, but nonetheless appeared to have some R&D productivity advantages, according to a new study completed by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

Despite experiencing lower overall clinical success rates, the top 10 firms terminated a greater proportion of their failures in early-stage clinical testing, compared to the other 40 companies in the group, the study found. Failing early lets developers redirect resources into other projects and avoid more costly later stage failures.

Big pharma’s earlier terminations can help productivity