The Pharmabiz sample of leading 15 international pharmaceutical companies have failed to push research and development (R&D) expenditure during the first quarter ended March 2014. The R&D expenditure improved only by 1.8 per cent to $17,886 million from $17,563 million in the previous year as the expenditure of Pfizer, Merck & Co, Eli Lilly & Co and AstraZeneca declined significantly.

Further, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Teva Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson registered single digit growth in R&D expenditure. However, Bayer, AbbVie, Amgen, Baxter and Novo Nordisk pushed their R&D expenditure significantly during the first quarter of 2014.

R&D expenditure as percent of revenue worked out to 14.3 per cent as against 14.2 per cent in the similar period of last year. There was continued pipeline progress wit positive regulatory decisions and significant clinical trial data released.

Novartis remained highest R&D spender during the quarter to $2,432 million as against $2,297 million in the corresponding period of last year. Novartis has strengthened its competitive position in the filed of immune-oncotherapy with the acquisition of biotechnology company CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Pfizer's R&D expenditure declined by 5.1 per cent to $1,623 million from $1,710 million. The recently launched products like Eliquis and Xeljanz helped to offset lower sales of other blockbusters during the first quarter of 2014. Johnson & Johnson's R&D expenditure improved only by 2.6 per cent to $1,831 million from $1,784 million. In this quarterly study, Pharmabiz has not included Roche Group as it has not provided R&D spending.

Though the R&D expenditure is growing at a very slow space, the recently launched products added significant revenue to these companies. The recently launched products of Bayer viz., Xarelto, Eylea, Stivarga, Xofigo and Adempas registered combined sales of Euro 598 million as against Euro 244 million in the last period. The sales of relatively new products of Sanofi like Multaq, Jevtana, Zaltrap and Auvi-Q registered strong growth during the quarter.

AstraZeneca has strengthened its R&D pipeline which includes 104 projects with 90 are in the clinical phase of development. Its received approval for 4 projects during the first quarter of 2014 and 7 projects have successfully progressed to their next phase. The company announced that it anticipates 4 to 5 additional new molecular entity (NME) phase III starts in 2014. The late stage pipeline now includes 11 NMEs in phase III or under regulatory review. Myalept (metreleptin) gained regulatory approval from the US FDA in the first quarter. The company has taken decision to progress AZD9291 (NSCLC), benralizumab (COPD) and tralokinumab (severe asthma into Phase III). 

GlaxoSmithKline continued R&D momentum with around 40 NMEs currently in phase II/III clinical development. The company has 6 new respiratory products in late-stage development, including mepoluzimab, a new treatment for severe asthma. The company received positive phase III results in the quarter ended March 2014 and it is now planning to file mepoliuzimab for approval by the end of this year. In oncology, its newly launched MEK and BRAF mono-therapies now have around 70 per cent combined share of prescriptions in the melanoma v600 targeted therapy market in the US. Its Tanzeum, a new product for type 2 diabetes is now approved in both the US and Europe and it is launching the same in third quarter of this year.

R&D expenditure - First Quarter ended March 2014 & 2013