- New report reveals positive outlook for pharmaceutical industry and key insights into current trends

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today released its annual synopsis of pharmaceutical industry trends in its 2014 Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, compiled by CMR International, a Thomson Reuters business and world leader in global pharmaceutical R&D performance metrics. The report found a number of positive trends across the biopharmaceutical landscape—including an all-time high in pharmaceutical sales and an increase in New Molecular Entities (NMEs) and in drugs successfully completing late stage clinical trials—that contradict industry perceptions of a decline in R&D productivity.

The CMR Factbook—a leading publication of pharmaceutical facts containing 11 chapters of essential data on R&D pipeline volume, success rates, cycle times, regional comparisons, therapeutic areas, generics and other areas—provides valuable strategic insight to pharmaceutical industry leaders. This year's report underscores a promising industry outlook, as evidenced by:

• Global pharmaceutical sales highest ever: Global pharmaceutical sales reached an all-time high of approximately $980 billion in 2013 and are expected to rise to $1 trillion this year. However, the rate of growth declined in 2013 compared to previous years due to the expiration of patent protection on a number of blockbuster drugs in markets dominated by lower-cost generic equivalents.
• Third-most NMEs or novel drugs launched in last decade: The number of NMEs launched in 2013 was the third-highest in the last decade. Regulators and payers are demanding safer, more effective and differentiated drugs to try to contain the rising costs of healthcare. The industry continues to respond to these challenges by diversifying into areas of unmet need and rare indications. Approximately half of all drugs were specialty indicated for the treatment of cancer, pulmonary arterial hypertension and HIV. All oncology NME first-world launches in 2013 received orphan drug status.
• Cancer treatment benefits from advances in precision medicine: Anti-cancer development continues to attract the highest amount of investment across all therapeutic areas, with the majority of recent approvals receiving orphan drug status from the FDA.
• Pharma increases rate of successful drugs by improving ability to fail "fast and cheaply": There has been a decline in pipeline volumes and success rates in early clinical development phases, yet there is a trend in stable success rates across the later phases. This indicates that the industry is improving its ability to "fail fast, fail cheaply," which is increasing the success rate of more advanced drug candidates.

"Pharmaceutical R&D is a difficult and expensive process in an industry with high expectations," said Jon Brett-Harris, managing director of Thomson Reuters Life Sciences.  "With much of the recent conversation focused on the hurdles in the pharma space, it is reassuring to see positive developments and an encouraging future landscape."

Information published in the CMR Factbook was compiled by the Thomson Reuters Life Sciences Professional Services team. It is based on proprietary, primary sources, competitive intelligence, and public sources covering key trends in the pharmaceutical space. For more than 15 years, CMR International has worked with the leading global pharmaceutical companies to assess R&D productivity and provide insights into industry trends to strengthen planning and effectiveness of R&D. CMR International has published the pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, an annual report for the pharmaceutical R&D sector providing a reliable source of key reference metrics, since 2003.

Learn more about the CMR Factbook and Thomson Reuters Life Sciences Professional Services.

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SOURCE Thomson Reuters