In the past ten years, the costs of drug development have more than doubled. At present, a pharmaceutical company needs to invest an estimated 2.4 billion euros to authorise a single drug. There are different reasons that drive the costs for research. One reason is that only around 11% of all identified and potentially effective substances ultimately obtain marketing authorisation. Many substances that are researched are shown to be either inadequately effective or tolerable, or in some cases they are simply no better than the “gold standard” (i.e. the proven and best drug available on the market).
Conversely, this also means that very good drugs are available for many diseases. This holds particularly true for the treatment of widespread diseases. In the past decades, the pharmaceutical industry aimed primarily to develop “blockbuster” drugs. These are drugs that achieve annual revenues of more than one billion dollars. However, recently – and not least owing to government subsidies – there has been more and more research into substances for rare disease.
In general, the requirements placed on the quality of conduct of clinical trials are exceedingly high. This has certainly contributed to the soaring costs, but also to the safety of our medicines. In 2015, Germany ranked second as a centre of research, with a total of 599 clinical drug trials performed. The US ranked first, with 2397 trials, and the UK followed on third place with 547 trials.
As a contract research organisation, MEDICRO boasts many years of experience in clinical research. Are you planning a clinical or non-interventional study? Do you need qualified monitors or professional project management? Then you have come to the right place.
In addition, when conducting international, multicentre trials, there is a strong demand for high-quality medical translations to ensure a smooth implementation and high quality of the trial. MEDICRO is your competent partner, also when it comes to specialist translations.
Do not hesitate to contact us! You can reach us via our Contact form or at office@medicro.de.