Pharma R&D Costs Increase-Fewer Drugs in Late Stage Development

In 2011, fewer drugs reached the later stages of development than in 2010. In addition, there were more late stage failures. These were the key findings of a recently issued report by Deloitte LLP. In the twelve Big Pharma companies which were evaluated, late phase projects decreased from 270 to 220 in 2011. It was suggested that greater discretion  regarding development project selection was responsible for the decline , however,  there was also a notable increase in late stage failures.  Merck, Sanofi and Glaxo were among the companies that discontinued programs late in development. It would be reasonable to expect that greater discretion in selecting  Phase III programs would lead to fewer failures but apparently this wasn't the case, at least in the short term. It will be interesting to observe if the “brain power” drain Big Pharma is going through will have long term effects on success rate of development programs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/drugmakers-returns-on-research-fall-as-pipeline-projects-fail.html