Recent presentation by Patrick Frey, the chief of staff in the Office of New Drugs at the US FDA underscores important trends in the biopharmaceutical R&D sector.

At the end of November 2017, active INDs were at 7,020, a 14-year record high, at a steady growth since 2004, when the number was 4,361

Breakthrough therapy designations have been soaring. There have been 529 requests and 192 were granted. 51% of the approved ones were in oncology and hematology.

As of December 6^th, 41 new NDA have already been approved, within close distance of the 45 new approvals in 2015.

These numbers back the trend that new drug development is far more successful than just a few years ago.