Skip to main content

More compounds failing Phase I

FDA chief warns that high drug attrition rate is pushing up the cost of drug development

Written byAnne Harding
| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00

Fewer drugs and biologics are making it from Phase 1 trials to the marketplace, which has dramatically pushed up the cost of drug development, Acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Lester M. Crawford said in a speech to a group of institutional investment analysts last month.

The FDA chief said that while historically 14% of drugs that entered Phase 1 trails eventually won approval, now 8% of these drugs make it to the marketplace, and that half of products fail in the late stage of Phase 3 trials, compared to one in five in the past. The FDA was unable to identify the source of these figures for The Scientist by press time.

In his July 7 speech, Crawford also told the Banc of American Securities Healthcare Institutional Conference that filings of standard new molecular entities had fallen from 34 in 1995 to 12 last year, while original biological ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member?
Add The Scientist as a preferred source on Google

Add The Scientist as a preferred Google source to see more of our trusted coverage.

Meet the Author

Related articles background image
The Scientist Digest cover September 2026
September 2026

Multiplex Microscopy Becomes Easier with Encoded Antibodies

A new system that enables researchers to uniquely tag monoclonal antibodies for use in microscopy could help simplify complex imaging studies.

View this Issue
Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Alamar Biosciences logo
Best Practices for qPCR Assay Design and Optimization

Best Practices for qPCR Assay Design and Optimization

Bio-Rad
Beyond the Basics: Strategies for Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics Analysis

Beyond the Basics: Strategies for Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics Analysis

bioxcell
Scientist reviewing cellular and molecular data on a computer in a laboratory.

Building Translation-Ready Biomarkers with Connected Workflows

Danaher Logo

Products

Closeup image of a multi channel pipette dispensing pink liquid into a 96-well plate.

The ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot for affordable workflow automation

Integra Logo
Single cells in suspension

Rapidly isolate primary cells and make uniform single-cell suspensions with Corning® Cell Strainers

Corning logo
Abstract image representing cell membranes linked together.

CellBrite® Steady Membrane Stain: Cell surface staining built for real-time imaging

Biotium
sino biological logo

Monod Bio Licenses AI-designed Protein Technologies to SignalChem Biotech for Custom Discovery Assays