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BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT 24
April,2007: More than two hundred therapies to
address different forms of cancers are currently
at various stages of clinical development, show
surveys.
Drug makers based in the UK alone have 170 drug
candidates being studied constituting the biggest
slice of their drug research pipeline, according
to a recent survey by the Association of the
British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
ABPI studied 47 companies and found that 951
compounds in Phase I, II or III clinical trials in
2006. The figures have doubled since ABPI’s last
survey published in 2002 when it was 561
candidates in development.
As per A-Z of Medicines Research --a new ABPI
publication – more number of compounds were being
developed for cancer than any other therapeutic
category. This is followed by cardiovascular
diseases (109), mental disorders (62), diseases of
the endocrine system (59), respiratory diseases
(53) and dementia (20).
There were 362 compounds in early stage trials
(Phase 1 trials), 349 in mid stage (Phase II) and
240 in late stage (Phase III). There were also 137
medicines in post-marketing or Phase IV trials.
Annual surveys by the Office of National
Statistics show that total R&D expenditure by the
pharmaceutical industry in the UK, including
capital spend, rose from £475 million in 1984 to
£3,308 million in 2005. The pharmaceutical
industry accounted for more than 60% of R&D
investment in UK medical research in 2004/05.
ABPI Director General Dr Richard Barker said that
research "must be nurtured. 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 general drift of government policy on
galvanising R&D investment in the UK, as expressed
through collaborative initiatives such as the
Ministerial Industry Strategy Group, is
"absolutely" in the right direction. The existence
of a forum through which industry can "talk to
government in the round" - and not just the DH but
the DTI and other interested parties such as the
Department for Education and Skills.
However, as research and development costs soar
- the same report show a 700 per cent increase
over the last two decades to £3.31bn (€4.88bn),
the productivity of the pharma industry as a whole
is declining and the ABPI acknowledges that many
of these compounds will not make it through the
stringent, 12-year development period, and most
that do make it, will not be medical
'breakthroughs'.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT |
