Drug development “failures” critical to discovery process, says new report

8 October 2014

US trade group the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has released a new report, titled Researching Cancer Medicines: Setbacks and Stepping Stones, which highlights the number of investigational cancer medicines that did not succeed in clinical trials and how these so-called “failures” are a critical part of the drug development process.

The report illustrates the immense challenges in bringing new medicines to patients with cancer, and explores the factors that contributed to both the approvals of new treatments and those that “failed” between 1998 and 2014. The report, available on PhRMA’s website, focuses on three cancers that are particularly difficult to treat: melanoma, lung cancer and brain cancer.

Key findings include:

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