"Record number" of drugs in UK pipeline

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has issued a warning that "the right environment must be reinforced if the research-based [drug] industry is to continue to flourish in the UK." The cautionary note comes as the industry body reveals that 951 compounds were in pre-registration clinical development in 2006, compared with 561 in 2002, the last time the ABPI reported on this issue.

Richard Barker, the ABPI's director general, said: "this report shows the medicines pipeline is stronger than ever before, and that there are many exciting prospects in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including some of humanity's toughest disease areas."

Dr Barker noted that "far more medicines are developed in the UK than its market scale would imply and among the reasons for this are the stability offered by a five-year agreement on pricing, coupled with a flexible pricing structure." The figures appear in the A-Z of Medicines Research, an ABPI publication, which also records that drugmakers accounted for more than 60% of R&D investment in medical research in 2004-2005.