title: Vaccine Pipeline Has Grown During The Past Two Decades With More Early-Stage Trials From Small And Medium-Size Companies.
abstract: Many serious diseases lack safe and effective vaccines. Using a large commercial database, we examined trends in global vaccine research and development and found that the proportion of new vaccine candidates entering all stages of clinical development increased by 3-5 percentage points over the past two decades. Small and medium-size companies accounted for nearly twice as many new Phase I vaccine trials compared to large companies, but late-stage (Phase III) vaccine trials were dominated by large companies. There were no significant differences between vaccines and drugs in the probability of success in clinical trials or in profitability. Small and medium-size companies, including spin-outs from academic research centers, play an important role in innovative research and discovery. Our findings suggest that policy making targeted at smaller companies, such as prizes or opportunities for public-private partnerships, could support the development of new vaccines, particularly those targeting unmet medical needs and emerging public health threats.
authors: Thomas J. Hwang is a venture capitalist at Bain Capital, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: Hwang
authors: Aaron S. Kesselheim (akesselheim@partners.org) is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston.
authors: Aaron S
authors: AS
authors: Kesselheim
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships; D014612:Vaccines
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines
keywords: Financing Health Care; Pharmaceuticals