The pharmaceutical industry has long been at the forefront of scientific innovation, driving advancements in medicine that aim to improve the quality of human health and lifespan.
The race to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 shows that innovation in pharmaceuticals can have an enormous impact on public health.
However, drug discovery is expensive, time-consuming, and fraught with uncertainty. It is estimated to cost approximately $2.5 billion to bring a new drug to market, according to a report by UK-based health research foundation The Wellcome Trust. Scientific and technical challenges mean that the probability of discovering a new drug and bringing it to clinical trial is around 35%, and the likelihood of successfully progressing from Phase 1 trials to receiving regulatory approval is just 9-14%, with the process taking an average of 12-15 years. This is a major barrier to innovation, and market forces typically focus on areas with the potential for large commercial returns.
Poolbeg Pharma plc (LON:POLB) is a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, with a novel capital light clinical model which enables us to develop multiple products faster and more cost effectively than the traditional biotech model.
