With 2016 coming to a close, the global drug industry is set to receive the lowest annual amount of new drug approvals from the Food and Drug Administration since 2010, reports Reuters.
Here are five things to know.
1. So far, 19 new drugs have been approved in the U.S. market in 2016.
2. With only three weeks left in the calendar year, it's likely the final total will rank far lower than total approvals in 2015 and 2014, when 45 and 41 new drugs were approved, respectively, according to the report.
3. Deutsche Bank analysts expect the final total of new approvals in 2016 to be around 22.
4. As drug approvals are shrinking, so is the profitability of research and development for drug companies, reports Reuters.
5. The total projected returns on investment in research and development for the top 12 drug companies in the world have decreased to 3.7 percent this year, compared to a high of 10.1 percent in 2010, according to a report from Deloitte.
"As costs per product remain high, sales projections decline, and given it now takes the industry over 14 years to launch a drug, real questions should be raised about productivity and returns on innovation," said Colin Terry, a director in Deloitte's life sciences division.
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