The Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading provider of intelligent information for businesses in its 2015 CMR Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook has highlighted that despite concerns about decline in R&D, the pharma global sales is expected to be between $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion by 2018. It also reveals a positive shift in new molecular entities (NMEs) with 46 launches in 2014; the highest in over a decade.

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. The diversification in the pharma industry increases NME launches. It is observed 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.

The 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.

There is an increase in failing fast with 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. 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,” said Basil Moftah, president, Thomson Reuters IP & Science.

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 R&D. 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.