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Contact us- The pharmaceutical industry is the most important single source of investment in health research. The estimated total R&D expenditure of pharmaceutical companies worldwide in 2002 exceeded $45 billion.
- Research-based pharmaceutical companies have discovered and developed the great majority of existing medicines. For example, according to a study by National Institutes of Health, out of 47 best-selling drugs in the US only 4 medicines were identified for which the government could claim “use or ownership rights”. Another study shows that out of 284 medicines approved in the US in the 1990s, 93 percent originated from the pharmaceutical industry.
- Pharmaceutical R&D addresses the most important causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Only within last decade, pharmaceutical companies developed 3 new classes of HIV/AIDS drugs, 3 classes of cardiovascular drugs, and 2 new classes of medicines against Alzheimer’s disease. Many breakthrough treatments have been developed for other indications.
Position
The research-based pharmaceutical industry is a unique source of new medicines which has continuously offered clear benefits to patients, societies and healthcare systems worldwide. Drugs save lives, alleviate pain and suffering thus improving quality of life and increasing longevity. They also provide for innovative, cost-effective medical tools, bringing important savings to healthcare systems.
The process of pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) is a complex, costly, risky and long undertaking. It requires a sustained mobilisation of substantial human and financial resources over long period of time before a new drug finally reaches the patient. On average, this process takes between 10-15 years and the estimated average cost of developing a new medicine exceeds $800 million. In the course of the R&D process, more than 8,000 compounds are tested on average, of which only one is developed into a potent and safe drug.
Pharmaceutical R&D is a multi-step process which in general terms can be divided in two parts. First, research , during which a molecule with specific and potentially useful characteristics is identified; and second, development , when such a simple molecule undergoes numerous steps of stringent testing in order to develop it into a final product. An important implication of this fact is that very different skills and capacities are required in order to go through the whole cycle of R&D. In practice, only the pharmaceutical industry is capable to complete the entire R&D cycle. This fact makes the pharmaceutical industry the driving and vital component of pharmaceutical innovation.
The contribution of public research (government and academic) to the process of pharmaceutical R&D is limited to the very early stages of the research phase. "Basic or fundamental research" provides for invaluable discoveries enabling further “targeted” drug research. However, "applied research" is the step that brings new products to the patients. Development remains the most important component of the R&D process as it consumes over 70 percent of the entire R&D budget. This phase of the process is dominated by large-scale, multi-step clinical trials.
The process of pharmaceutical R&D is dynamic. In order to be successful, it requires continued investment by pharmaceutical companies. Their human and financial capacities, expertise, know-how and technological excellence guarantee the sustainability of this process and result with a constant flow of innovative medicines.