An interesting article from McKinsey on the drivers for rapid increase in the new drugs approvals by FDA: http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Public_Sector/Whats_driving_the_surge_in_new_drug_approvals?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1311 with 39 new drugs approved in 2012 alone - the decade high. 2011-2012 approvals were 24% ahead of long-term average.
Good news for Ireland's number one goods-exporting sector, but several caveats in place:
- FDA approvals are accelerating both due to pipeline of new formulas, and on acceleration in late stage trials approvals. The former is driven by biophrama - with much less prevalent activity presence in Ireland, although we are aggressively competing for the sub-sector.
- Pharma sector is still driven into lower costs operations - something not exactly favouring Ireland.
- Irish market access to the EU is becoming problematic due to cost cutting efforts of the European health systems.
- Approvals seem to be in new submissions, so less likely to generate blockbusters we need to replace to stay put in terms of pharma sector exports.
Still, to quote McKinsey: "We are cautiously optimistic that this development signals a turnaround in pharmaceutical R&D productivity"
