After hearing years of lamentations about the anemic record of new drug approvals, a new study from Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development shows that the number of drugs entering clinical testing has surged 52 percent. Better technology for selecting drug candidates is offered as one reason for the sudden surge. And one in four of the clinical candidates were in-licensed from another company, compared to 15 percent in 1997. These figures underscore what the biotech industry has been saying for some time: It takes time for the new technology to hit the development pipeline. Now that it has, you can expect a surge of new approvals when they get through Phase III.
- here's the Washington Post article on the study