Drop in US Drug Approvals But No Similar Trend in EU

NDA Group announced findings from their fourth annual comparison of drug approvals in Europe and the United States, ahead of this year's DIA EuroMeeting in Glasgow, UK.

The report – based on preliminary research figures from the EMA and FDA websites in January 2017 – found that there has been a drop in US approvals but not in EU. For 2016 there were 74 new drug approvals granted in the US and EU. Of these new products, 19 were approved only in the EU, 19 only in the US, and 36 were granted in both regions. However,17 drugs that were approved in the EU in 2016 had received prior approval in 2015 or earlier in the US, while only six products registered in the US in 2016 were previously approved in the EU.

The pooled statistics showed that of the new drug approvals, 35 were classified as novel drugs (e.g. NAS, NME or BLA), nine were approved only in the EU, nine only in the US and 17 in both regions. For the EMA, the number represents the fewest NASs approved since 2011, while the FDA has not approved this few NMEs/BLAs since 2010. Big pharma represented 53% of the new drug approvals in 2016 vs 47% from small and medium sized pharma. For big pharma this is a decrease compared to previous years. Of all new products that received marketing approval in 2016, 30 products underwent special approval procedures like Conditional, Fast Track, Breakthrough, Accelerated Approval and Priority Review, 18 in the US, seven in EU and five in. In many cases more than one of these pathways was granted per product.

To explore the full Status of New Drug Approvals for 2016 report, visit http://www.ndareg.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NDA-Infographic-2016.pdf