Pharma Increasingly Looking to Innovate High-Risk, First-in-Class Products

With the cost of bringing a single novel drug to market estimated to be $2.6 billion in 2015, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking towards developing first-in-class treatments to maximize revenue and stay ahead of competition, according to business intelligence provider GBI Research.

The company’s latest report states that the growth in drug R&D costs appears to stem from an increased clinical failure rate and emphasis on proving superiority over comparator drugs in technology assessments, as well as an increasing level of sophistication from payers when assessing the cost-effectiveness of drugs.

Higher-risk programs for innovative first-in-class products remain attractive; the 4,964 first-in-class products currently in development represent 37.9% of pharmaceutical pipeline products with a disclosed molecular target, the report states.

GBI analyst Dominic Trewartha commented: “Some of the most successful products of the previous ten years have been first-in-class therapies, including Avastin (bevacizumab), Rituxan (rituximab), Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Gleevec (imatinib). Additionally, when 2015 FDA approvals are analysed, first-in-class products have far higher average projected sales than non-first-in-class products, indicating that this trend is set to continue in the future.

For more, see the report: Innovation Tracking Factbook 2016 – An Assessment of the Pharmaceutical Pipeline