Finally, it brings together several key aspects of the way the process has been handled so far that the authors believe have been critical to its success. The current status of tropical disease drug and vaccine research and development Over the last two decades, it has become apparent that the research-based pharmaceutical industry has withdrawn more and more from tropical disease drug discovery. The reasons for this are quite straightforward. Drug discovery and development is a high-risk activity built around costly projects that have a high chance of failure. This failure may only become apparent late in the process after many tens of millions of dollars have been committed.
Companies focus on diseases for which there is potential for an adequate return on investment.
The costs associated with product research and development have continued to increase. One key aspect of this is the need to ensure that new drugs are safe as well as efficacious. If one takes into account the rate of failure, the industry spends around 600 million US dollars for every new drug that is registered and introduced on to the market. The time taken to register a new drug takes around 10 to 12 years, by which time the patent life remaining on a product may only be 8 years. Peak annual sales of well over 200 million US dollars are therefore required to justify the high level of investment.