Comprehend Advancing Clinical Development Insights

By Mark Whitehorn

Pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics development has become painfully expensive. To illustrate this point, for the five new AstraZeneca drugs approved between 2007 and 2011, the total cost for each was approximately $11.7B. – calculated as the total R&D spend in that time divided by the five drugs. The corresponding GlaxoSmithKline numbers are $8.1B for each of its ten new drugs approved in the same timeframe.

Part of the reason for this exorbitant cost is the increasing legislation covering medical development and the continual rise of the regulatory bar around drug and product safety. As a member of the public I could not approve more; indeed we all have the same vested interest in the safety of the drugs we are prescribed, the medical devices that we utilize and the diagnostic equipment used on us. But there has to be a balance because at some point the increasing cost starts to have a major inhibitory effect on development. As potential patients, none of us want to see innovation and progress stifled.