US drug development "taking off again"

Following years of declining R&D productivity, during which fewer new drugs received marketing approval in the USA, pharmaceutical companies are poised to reverse the trend, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

According to Tufts CSDD, only 58 new drugs in 2002-4 received marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, a 47% drop from the peak of 110 in the 1996-8 period.

Key to improving R&D productivity is the willingness of drug developers to use new discovery tools, such as pharmacogenomics, to accelerate the pace of translating basic research into viable drug candidates, and the aggressive management of clinical trials, through advanced data analysis and outsourcing, to lower cost sites around the world, said Tufts CSDD director Kenneth Kaitin, as the group's Outlook 2006 report was launched.