Speed of innovation: how quickly are different therapeutic areas adopting paradigm-shifting drugs?

The past decades have seen breakthroughs in drug discovery that have revolutionized the treatment of many diseases. These paradigm-shifting treatments are often novel targeted therapies, directed at new areas of biology. To better understand these paradigm shifts, we conducted an analysis of the adoption of 25 drug classes from five major therapeutic areas (TAs). We show systematic differences in terms of adoption speed, with oncology being substantially faster than any other TA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this speed is increasing, such that novel therapies are adopted at least twice as fast now as they were a decade ago. We also show that, once a paradigm-shifting therapy is established in one disease, subsequent innovation accelerates dramatically. We discuss implications of these findings for research and development (R&D) organizations the portfolios of which include novel and potentially paradigm-changing molecules.