Innovation in breakthrough drugs and vaccines: Development risk, patient impact, and value. Issue 10 (October 2021) - Prigodich, Andrew E.
Highlights: Innovation is critical to bring breakthrough drugs and vaccines to patients. Development risk, patient impact and commercial value vary by type of innovation. Addressing established targets with innovative design is particularly effective. Emerging technologies are enabling innovation for novel and established targets. Abstract: Innovation has a crucial role in developing breakthrough drugs and vaccines that can change patients' lives. To better understand this role, we evaluated recent outcomes for assets developed using different types of innovation. Although all approaches have delivered breakthroughs, assets that modulate established biological targets with innovative scientific or technological designs provide a unique combination of reduced development risk, high patient impact, and high commercial value. This type of asset currently represents a relatively small proportion of approved drugs and vaccines, but we anticipate that an increasing body of scientific knowledge and ongoing technological advancements could offer opportunities to grow this category in the future.