Impact of Collaboration on Clinical Development Time

Abstract

This research investigated how collaborations affect drug development, including innovation speed and productivity in the field of new drug development. Two-hundred and twenty new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2015 and 2019 were analyzed for the duration of each clinical phase using the Clinicaltrials.gov database. Collaborative drug development projects were associated with longer clinical development than independent projects. The largest differences were seen in phases 2 and 3. Collaborations between small firms were associated with longer clinical development times than other types of collaboration. This result suggests consideration should be given, when devising a new drug development strategy, to the fact that collaborative development can slow down the clinical development process.