Record number of medicines in UK pipeline

Nearly a thousand potential future medicines are in the r&d pipeline of some 50 companies operating in the UK, according to a survey by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

But the organisation warned that the right environment must be reinforced if the research-based industry is to continue to flourish in the UK.

Just over 950 compounds are in pre-registration clinical development in 2006, compared with 561 compounds being researched when the ABPI conducted its last survey, published in 2002. Of the compounds in development, 362 are in Phase 1 clinical trials, 349 in Phase 2, and 240 in Phase 3.

Overall, the largest number of compounds are being developed for cancer (170), cardiovascular diseases (109), mental disorders (62), diseases of the endocrine system (59), respiratory diseases (53) and dementia (20).

'This report shows the medicines pipeline is stronger than ever before, and that there are many exciting prospects in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including some of humanity's toughest disease challenges,' said Dr Richard Barker, Director General of the ABPI.

'However, research must be nurtured. Far more medicines are developed in the UK than its market scale would imply, and among the reasons for this are the stability offered by a five-year agreement on pricing coupled with a flexible pricing structure.'

The figures - published in the ABPI publication the A-Z of Medicines Research - show that the pharmaceutical industry accounted for more than 60% of r&d investment in UK medical research during 2004-05.

Industry investment has grown steadily over time, and especially so in the past two decades. Annual surveys by the Office of National Statistics show that total R&D expenditure by the industry in the UK, including capital investment, has risen from £475m in 1984 to £3,308m in 2005.