How The Fast-Changing R&D Pipeline Is Amplifying The Importance Of Adaptable CROs

Major advances in our understanding of the causes of once-untreatable diseases have reshaped the global drug development pipeline over the past decade, paving the way for better health outcomes for many millions of people. To realize these emerging opportunities, drug developers need access to clinical trial capabilities tailored to the modalities and indications that now dominate their pipelines. The pace of change is amplifying the importance of partnering with adaptable clinical development service providers that know how to get the next generation of breakthrough medicines to patients.

The extent to which drug development priorities have changed over the past decade is evident in the data on oncology’s share of the global R&D pipeline. In 2010, 27% of drugs in development targeted cancers.¹ After rising steadily for years, that figure hit 35% in 2019.

Data on U.S. venture capital funding illustrate the same trend. In 2009, developers of oncology drugs attracted 26% of all biotech venture funding.² By 2018, that figure had risen to 36%. The annual amount of money invested in cancer biotechs increased by 382% over that period as investors saw and acted on the potential to address major unmet medical needs.

However, the trend has yet to translate into a significant change in the proportion of newly approved drugs that target cancers. On average, oncology drugs accounted for close to 27% of new medicines approved by the FDA annually from 2010 to 2014.^3–7 From 2015 to 2019, oncology drugs accounted for a little more than 28% of annual approvals, on average.^8–12 The difference between the two periods works out at around a 1.5 percentage point increase in oncology’s share of new drug approvals.