Marketing exclusivity for first-in-class drugs has shortened to 2.5 years, says Tufts

According to the USA's Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development's Quarterly Update of 2009, marketing exclusivity periods for first-in-class drugs have fallen dramatically in recent decades.

It notes that the average time between the first and second follow-on drugs in a class fell even more rapidly. The vast majority of follow on drugs had initial pharmacologic testing and were in clinical studies prior to approval of the first-in-class drug, it states.

The findings underscore the highly competitive nature of pharmaceutical development, and highlight the fact that drug companies are more often engaged in development races than in after-the-fact imitation, says the update.