Drug pipeline
Encyclopedia
A drug pipeline is the set of compounds (i.e. drugs in development
) that a pharmaceutical company
has under development
at any given point in time.
The development of drugs
involves various phases that can broadly be grouped in 3 stages: pre-clinical, clinical trials and marketing (or post-approval). Pharmaceutical companies
usually have a number of compounds in their pipelines.
The drug pipeline is an important indicator of the value and future prospects of a company
. Usually the more compounds in the pipeline, and the more advanced stage that these are in the better.
Other factors that are taken into account when assessing the value of a pipeline include the size of the target market of each drug
, the market share
that the drug is expected to capture and the risk that it will not be approved.
The cost of developing a new drug is astronomical – typically a drug costs many hundreds of millions and can reach 1 billion dollars over 15–17 years. Assessing this risk and filtering out as early as possible compounds that may not eventually get approved is essential to the pharmaceutical industry and involves checking the effectiveness of drugs as well as the likelihood of toxic events (Adverse event prediction
).
Investigational New Drug
The United States Food and Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug program is the means by which a pharmaceutical company obtains permission to ship an experimental drug across state lines before a marketing application for the drug has been approved...
) that a pharmaceutical company
Pharmaceutical company
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...
has under development
Drug development
Drug development is a blanket term used to define the process of bringing a new drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery...
at any given point in time.
The development of drugs
Drug development
Drug development is a blanket term used to define the process of bringing a new drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery...
involves various phases that can broadly be grouped in 3 stages: pre-clinical, clinical trials and marketing (or post-approval). Pharmaceutical companies
Pharmaceutical company
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...
usually have a number of compounds in their pipelines.
The drug pipeline is an important indicator of the value and future prospects of a company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
. Usually the more compounds in the pipeline, and the more advanced stage that these are in the better.
Other factors that are taken into account when assessing the value of a pipeline include the size of the target market of each drug
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
, the market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
that the drug is expected to capture and the risk that it will not be approved.
The cost of developing a new drug is astronomical – typically a drug costs many hundreds of millions and can reach 1 billion dollars over 15–17 years. Assessing this risk and filtering out as early as possible compounds that may not eventually get approved is essential to the pharmaceutical industry and involves checking the effectiveness of drugs as well as the likelihood of toxic events (Adverse event prediction
Adverse event prediction
Adverse event prediction is the process of identifying potential adverse events of an investigational drug before they actually occur in a clinical trial....
).