The pharmaceutical industry is struggling in the development of new molecules with the result that the new drugs arriving cost more and more and less and less. The data was certified by a report by the Deloitte company, based on data from the 12 largest companies in the world, according to which it now takes more than a billion dollars to bring a medicine from the laboratory to the hospital wards. The numbers provided by the report say that, if in 2010 the cost of developing a drug was 864 billion dollars, now it takes 1.1 (817 million euros), with a decrease in profits from the research and development sector from '1.8% to 8.4%. This figure goes hand in hand with a decrease in new molecules in the last stage of development or in the approval phase, which last year were 23 and are now 18. "This photograph shows the challenges that pharmaceutical industries are facing," explains Julian Remnant, one of the authors of the report, to the weekly Businessweek "we continue to see too high a level of failures in drug trials, which will lead to a further decline in profits in the future." Among the ways out indicated by the report there is also less secrecy in the laboratories of large companies: "Sharing data on bankruptcies and studies in progress" explains the expert "could help increase successes and reduce costs of development".
November 22, 2011 – DoctorNews
Big Pharma's R&D costs matter
For Big Pharma, the return on investment in Research and Development (R&D) is worsening: the average internal rate of return fell from 11.8% in 2010 to 8.4% in 2011, while the cost of developing a new drug decreased from 830 to $1.1 billion. This is the conclusion of a study based on public, non-corporate data of 12 pharmaceutical companies and reworked by the consulting firm Deloitte, which underlines how these data refer to the period preceding the approval and therefore the marketing of new drugs. However, analysts observe that to maximize returns, not only collaboration between companies is strategic, but also production efficiency.
(The Financial Times online – 21/11/2011, The Financial Times Page 21 – 21/11/2011) 
