Despite concerns around declines in research and development, a study done by the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters identifies a surge in global sales with 2014’s $1 trillion milestone and forecasts sales to reach $1.3 trillion by 2018. It also reveals a positive shift in new molecular entities (NMEs); the highest in over a decade with 46 launches in 2014.

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals shared the study in its 2015 CMR Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, the biopharmaceutical industry’s leading resource of global R&D trends.

Since 2003, the CMR Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook has been built in collaboration with leading global pharmaceutical companies to assess productivity and to provide insights to strengthen planning and the effectiveness of research and development. It is based on proprietary, primary sources, competitive intelligence, and public sources covering key trends across the landscape, including R&D pipeline volume, success rates, cycle times, regional comparisons, therapeutic areas, and generics.

The study underscores a promising industry outlook with increases in sales and NME launches and with shifting trends in R&D pipeline volume and therapeutic areas as evidenced by its other key findings.

Findings show that one third of 2014 launches were for rare indications, mainly within anti-cancer. More than 65 per cent were specialty drugs for the treatment of anti-cancer, hepatitis C virus and HIV.

Anti-cancer development continues to attract the highest amount of investments across all therapeutic areas with the majority of recent launches receiving orphan drug status from regulatory authorities.

Phase III pipeline volumes are steadily growing due to the improved ability to “fail fast and cheaply,” increasing the speed of potentially successful compounds through development.

“This is an extraordinary year for the pharma,” said Basil Moftah, president, Thomson Reuters IP & Science. “Not only do the critical insights provided by the Factbook challenge negative perceptions, but it demonstrates this industry’s continued commitment to creating and employing innovative solutions to tackle its largest hurdles.”

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. It combines industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets.