Abstract
Overview
Introduction
Waves of technological advancements have powered significant evolution in R&D from serendipitous drug discovery, through to rational drug design. However, as the low-hanging fruit has been picked, and recent technological advances have failed to yield high numbers of new therapies, the search is on to identify R&D strategies to improve R&D productivity
Scope of this report
- Overview of the pressures facing drug developers, including an analysis of whether the industry is facing an R&D productivity crisis
- In-depth analysis of R&D deal activity, together with a pipeline snapshot, to identify trends that are shaping the R&D environment
- Identification of strategy optimization recommendations designed to drive up R&D productivity
- Evaluation of case-studies of Big Pharma R&D strategies to determine how these companies are addressing the productivity problem
Table of Contents
- CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Scope of the report
- Methodology for primary and secondary research
- Key findings
- Scope of the report
- CHAPTER 2 CONCERNS OVER R&D PRODUCTIVITY HAVE INCREASED THE FOCUS ON
R&D STRATEGIES
- The fall in innovative drug approvals, coupled with soaring R&S
costs, indicates that Big Pharma is suffering from an R&D productivity
crisis
- The number of innovative drug approvals is falling
- The cost of developing each successfully launched drug has soared
- But is the drug development industry really facing a fall in R&D productivity?
- A range of challenges faces drug developers, increasing the importance
of prioritizing enhanced R&D productivity
- Factors making it more profitable for drug developers to become more focused on R&D investment and switch away from biasing spending towards sales and marketing
- Factors creating less stability or threatening profitability, which are making companies more risk-averse
- The fall in innovative drug approvals, coupled with soaring R&S
costs, indicates that Big Pharma is suffering from an R&D productivity
crisis
- CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS OF MEDTRACK CLINICAL PIPELINE DEALS AND DRUG DATABASES
- Partner mix in deals: earlier-stage companies are the most active deal makers
- Primary deal goal: co-development and licensing deals remain the most popular deal types
- Therapeutic focus of the pipeline: oncology remains the dominant target
- Approval times are quickest for infectious disease and oncology/IDI drugs
- Both probability of progression through development and development speed are optimal for oncology, IDI and infectious disease drugs
- Specific characteristics of therapy areas make them attractive to different drug developers
- Cost of development is also vital in deciding which therapy area to target
- Deal product type focus: biologics are popular, although small molecules remain dominant
- CHAPTER 4 A WIDE RANGE OF R&D STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE
IMPLEMENTED TO IMPROVE R&D PRODUCTIVITY
- An introduction to R&D: the history of drug development
- Many different strategies have been held up as the panacea of the drug development industry
- Companies such as Bayer Schering Pharma are leading the pack in development time
- Case-study examples of how Big Pharma is changing R&D to enhance
productivity
- A number of companies are making small refinements to drive
incremental improvement; however companies will need to ally these with
seismic changes to yield dramatic access to innovation in the future
- Merck' s model
- Lilly' s model
- Novartis' s business model strategy
- Wyeth' s business model strategy
- Some Big Pharma companies have thrown out the old models and have
started again: these are likely to be the big winners in the future from
an innovation capture perspective
- GSK' s model
- Roche' s model
- Which model is best?
- A number of companies are making small refinements to drive
incremental improvement; however companies will need to ally these with
seismic changes to yield dramatic access to innovation in the future
- Datamonitor has identified two groups of strategies to optimize R&D: those that improve the R&D model, and those that optimize R&D pathway progression
- CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS TO OPTIMIZE THE R&D MODEL
- Optimize outsourcing strategies
- Drug developers should implement strategies to optimize the way that CMOs are used
- Across the drug development industry, there is increased strategic
usage of outsourcing and globalization of functions
- Introduction to contract research outsourcing
- A range of factors are driving the use of CROs
- Despite the significant number of benefits, there are some downsides to using CROs
- There are a wide variety of CROs
- The CRO market is becoming increasingly globalized
- Outsourcing R&D: advantages and disadvantages of emerging countries
- There are a range of advantages and disadvantages with outsourcing to emerging markets
- How can Western CROs survive? The UK situation as a case study for how CROs can be used in Western markets
- India and China are the most popular emerging countries for
outsourcing CRO activity
- Indian CROs-advantages and disadvantages
- Chinese CROs-advantages and disadvantages
- Strategies that can be used to optimize the CRO experience
- Make significant commitments in the relationship with the CRO
- Ensure that communication between the CRO and the drug developer is strong, and that the right information is communicated
- Ensure that the way that staff are used is optimal
- Drug developers should try to remain appropriately cautious and not take unnecessary risks with the CRO relationship
- There are also some recommendations that are specific to the Chinese market
- Major drug developers need to improve their access to early-stage
research
- Private equity arms of Big Pharma companies are particularly useful in capturing European early-stage innovation
- Incubators are a relatively new strategy designed to improve earlier-stage innovation capture
- Despite significant potential in providing access to early-stage pre-commercial data, open-source research remains under-utilized
- Drug developers should use licensing and M&A to support in-house
R&D
- There are a range of advantages and disadvantages with licensing
- A range of factors are influencing the licensing environment
- There are a range of recommendations that drug developers can use to optimize their licensing strategy
- Big is not always best for drug discovery and development: why mega-mergers are not always the solution for improved R&D productivity
- Optimize macro drug development strategy
- Companies must determine the strategic balance between me-too incremental improvement and first-in-class targeting
- Even large multinational drug developers should look to tighten therapeutic focus
- Implementing infrastructure improvement-focused strategies including optimizing portfolio management is integral to improving R&D
- Broaden the range of targets but maintain the therapeutic focus is another option
- Improving specific R&D tools will help improve the R&D model
- Biomarkers use patient stratification and market segmentation to drive
future market growth
- Introduction: the evolution of patient treatment into personalized therapies
- The current state of the biomarkers market
- Biomarkers are used in a range of functions
- Factors driving the evolution of biomarkers
- Factors restricting the biomarkers market
- Better implementation of IT can also significantly help R&D
- Biomarkers use patient stratification and market segmentation to drive
future market growth
- Optimize outsourcing strategies
- CHAPTER 6 OPTIMIZING R&D PROCESSES WILL HELP TO BOOST R&D
PRODUCTIVITY
- Optimize safety assessment in preclinical tests
- The problem: the evolution of effective safety assessment is lagging
- The solution: improved safety assessment tools plus the implementation of a rigorous assessment program
- Drug developers should look to improve the way that clinical trials are
being run in-house
- Better use of academic medical centers helps to improve clinical trial progression
- Introduce innovative clinical trial designs to get rid of redundancy and identify where parallel operations can be carried out
- Develop robust strategies to reduce attrition
- What causes attrition?
- Why reduce attrition?
- How can attrition and risk be reduced?
- Taking attrition early helps reduce the financial impact
- Optimize use of, and interaction with, regulators
- Use regulatory bodies to gain access to huge amounts of data
- Use increased interaction to reduce the cost and time-delays associated with regulatory procedures
- Build a strong understanding of the global regulatory environment
- Focus on developing innovative drugs to capitalize on regulatory rewards
- Capitalize on regulatory programs to help develop drugs for niche or
serious indications
- The launch of the accelerated development program in Europe brought it more in line with the many acceleration programs in the US
- Drug developers should make use of the FDA' s fast-track program
- Orphan drug regulations aid innovative drug development
- Introduce greater P&R involvement in clinical trial design
- Improving patient enrollment and retention in clinical trials helps to speed up clinical trials
- Close relationships with key opinion leaders bring a number of advantages
- Optimize safety assessment in preclinical tests
- CHAPTER 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Publications and online articles
- Conference resources
- CHI Conference, San Francisco, February-March 2007
- BioBusiness Network, 2006
- Economist: 12th Annual Pharmaceutical Conference, February 2006
- Datamonitor resources
- APPENDICES
- Appendix A: The drug discovery process
- Appendix B: Categorization of deals in the MedTRACK deal database
- Appendix C: Categorization of therapeutic areas
- Appendix D: Glossary of terms
- List of Tables
- Table 1: Emerging market CROs offer a range of services
- Table 2: Advantages and disadvantages of CROs in emerging markets
- Table 3: Costs are considerably cheaper in India and China than in the US
- List of Figures
- Figure 1: NME and BLA approvals are falling, 1990-2004
- Figure 2: FDA drug approvals from 1989-2000 were primarily for low-innovation drugs
- Figure 3: A variety of different studies have shown that the cost of R&D has increased over time
- Figure 4: The number of priority approvals has risen consistently over the last 40 years
- Figure 5: The greatest number of deals in 2005-06 involved Phase II drugs, and the greatest number of clinical drugs in development are also in Phase II
- Figure 6: Deal activity is relatively constant, but spikes slightly at the end of each year
- Figure 7: Earlier-stage companies dominate as both source and partner in deals
- Figure 8: Collaborations between earlier-stage companies are the leading deal type
- Figure 9: Some partner deal mixes are more prevalent in certain phases of development than others
- Figure 10: Co-development and licensing agreements are the most common deal goals, accounting for more than two-thirds of all deals
- Figure 11: Single-product deals were the primary focus
- Figure 12: Different deal objectives are more common at different stages of development
- Figure 13: The deal database indicates cancer is also the dominant therapeutic focus among 2005-2006 R&D deals
- Figure 14: The pipeline database snapshot indicates that cancer is the dominant pipeline therapy class
- Figure 15: Oncology/immunologic and CNS therapies have dominated the clinical pipeline from 1993-2005
- Figure 16: Immune disorders and inflammation dominate R&D focus, based on a snapshot of the current patent situation
- Figure 17: Systemic anti-infectives are the most likely drug class to move from entering clinical testing to being approved by the FDA
- Figure 18: Antiparasitic drugs have the highest probability of approval and transitioning through from Phase II to approval
- Figure 19: HIV drugs are among the quickest therapies to develop
- Figure 20: Respiratory drugs are among the most expensive to develop
- Figure 21: Antibodies and vaccines dominate the deal focus
- Figure 22: Merck redesigned its business model to focus on capturing innovation and carrying out effective lifecycle management
- Figure 23: Lilly' s business model aims to improve productivity and reduce waste
- Figure 24: Novartis' s model for better integration
- Figure 25: Wyeth has revolutionized its approach to R&D
- Figure 26: GSK' s CEDD model is designed to mimic smaller-scale biotech companies
- Figure 27: Roche' s networked Pharma model provided significant innovation
- Figure 28: Optimizing the R&D process and the R&D model are central to improving R&D productivity
- Figure 29: High CRO usage projects have faster development times than low CRO usage projects
- Figure 30: BRIC countries compare favorably with European countries in terms of places to perform clinical trials outside the US
- Figure 31: AstraZeneca' s licensing opportunity evaluation strategy
- Figure 32: Factors that restrict licensing deals
- Figure 33: There is an inverse correlation between company size (defined by sales) and R&D productivity
- Figure 34: A range of safety-focused activities should be carried out to optimize safety assessment
- Figure 35: Oncology trials shows multiple opportunities to change clinical trial design
- Figure 36: The greatest amount of drug development spending is in Phase III, 2005
- Figure 37: Poor pharmacokinetics/ADME and lack of efficacy top the reasons for attrition
- Figure 38: Clinical development is still the most expensive and lengthiest section of drug development
- Figure 39: Regulatory initiatives designed to help accelerate the development for niche or serious indications

