How innovative are new drugs launched in the UK? A retrospective study of new drugs listed in the British National Formulary (BNF) 2001-2012.

Objectives: Innovative new drugs offer potential benefits to patients, healthcare systems, governments and the pharmaceutical industry. Recent data suggest annual numbers of new drugs launched in the UK have increased in recent years, and we sought to understand whether this represents increasing numbers of highly innovative drugs being made available or the introduction of increasing numbers of drugs with limited additional therapeutic value.

Design And Setting: Retrospective observational study of new drug entries in the British National Formulary (BNF).

Decline in new drug launches: myth or reality? Retrospective observational study using 30 years of data from the UK.

Objective: To describe trends in new drugs launched in the UK from 1982 to 2011 and test the hypothesis that the rate of new drug introductions has declined over the study period. There is wide concern that pharmaceutical innovation is declining. Reported trends suggest that fewer new drugs have been launched over recent decades, despite increasing investment into research and development.

Innovation and the burden of disease: retrospective observational study of new and emerging health technologies reported by the EuroScan Network from 2000 to 2009.

Objectives: Medical innovation in developed countries has been linked to burden of disease, with more innovation in areas representing greater investment return. This study used horizon scanning or early awareness and alert activity as a novel measure of innovation to determine whether new and emerging health technologies reported by international horizon scanning agencies reflected diseases constituting the greatest burden.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of the 20 member agencies of EuroScan (the International Information Network on New and Emerging Health Technologies), representing 17 developed countries.