Print“There is not only a lack of medicines in terms of numbers but also a lack of medicines in important areas where there is a high unmet medical need.”
The outgoing chief of the European Medicines Agency delivered some harsh criticism to the pharmaceutical industry saying its annual $85 billion in research and development doesn’t get enough bang for its buck and often fails to put enough effort into developing drugs where there is the greatest need for new therapies.
Thomas Lonngren, retiring from his post as executive director of the regulatory agency after ten years on the job, says drug companies have failed to invest in areas critical to public health, Dow Jones reported. Instead, he says new drugs often provide limited benefit and help only a small group of patients. He made his comments at a conference at the agency's London headquarters.
The declining productivity of R&D investment has been a growing concern within the industry as well as among policy makers. Though spending on R&D has ballooned over the past decade, the industry continues to produce roughly the same number of new drugs from year to year.
Lonngren’s concerns are not only the lack of R&D productivity, but where the industry is putting its money. He says the industry is not doing enough to develop new antibiotics as the threat of resistant bacteria continues to rise. He also points to the need for greater investment into the development of drugs to treat neurological disorders as the aging population will fuel a sharp rise in the number of people suffering from dementia.
“There is not only a lack of medicines in terms of numbers but also a lack of medicines in important areas where there is a high unmet medical need,” he says in a report from Reuters. “One of the areas we are exploring is (for the EMA) to act as a watchdog, to see how the pipeline is looking in terms of research and development–and if we see gaps in drug development, we will finger it.”
Lonngren doesn’t think regulators should tell the industry how it must invest its R&D money, but suggested they should advise policy makers and the public about where research efforts are deficient.
December 17, 2010
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-outgoing_emea_chief_criticizes_pharma%e2%80%99s_rd.html
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