Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved a whopping 45 new drugs, one of the highest numbers since 1996. In 2016, that number’s fallen to a dismal 19 (as of Dec. 9). But why?
The latest annual report from the FDA’s Office of New Drugs approves drugs provides some insights into the sharp drop-off. (For some context: “new” drug approvals only refer to genuinely new therapies, and wouldn’t include, for example, an existing cancer drug that was already approved to treat melanoma and then gained an additional indication to treat lung cancer.)
