The report shows a rise in peak sales, reduced cost of development, and reduced length of cycle times, which collectively, indicate that pharma companies are starting to see the benefits of optimized processes from previous years and innovative changes to the R&D process. The COVID-19 vaccine development process may serve as a blueprint for the industry to plan, design and execute studies more efficiently across R&D portfolios.
Deloitte's analysis also found that the combined cohort of pharmaceutical companies continue to rely on external sources to fuel innovation for more than half of their late-stage R&D pipeline, increasing to 71% in 2021 from 51% in 2018. The cohort also revealed a significant increase in the number of co-developed assets, rising from 32% in 2020 to 46% in 2021. This suggests that almost half of forecast revenues from the late-stage pipeline are being generated through collaborations and scientific partnerships.
