Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Drug/biotech R&D success is improving, according to Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/us-drug-improving-idUSBRE85P06H20120626

This is the stat most people have focused on, although it’s not the most consequential one, IMO:

The number of innovative medicines, or new molecular entities, launched globally in 2011 hit a 10-year high of 31, up from 21 in 2010.

Of greater consequence, IMO, is the declining number of phase-3 failures:

…the tally of drugs terminated in the final Phase III stage of clinical trials dropped markedly, to 45 in the last three years from 53 in 2008-2010…

Inasmuch as phase-3 failures are the biggest component of the fully-allocated cost of bringing a successful drug to market, the factoid above is very encouraging indeed.

R&D expenditure on prescription drugs has effectively plateaued in the past four years, after decades of relentless increases… leading drugmakers spent an aggregate $71.05 billion in 2011. That was 2.5 percent more than in 2010, although part of the rise reflected weakness in the dollar, since a large part of global R&D cash is spent in euros and Swiss francs.

Related drug-development factoids reside in the following posts:

#msg-59909806 Headline story on BIO’s study
#msg-60339665 Phase-transition probabilities (overall database)
#msg-60340131 Phase-transition probabilities (lead vs secondary indications)
#msg-60340768 Success rates in oncology