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The pharma industry from Paul Janssen to today: why drugs got harder to develop and what we can do about it | Alex’s blog

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In 1953, aged 27, Paul Janssen set up the research laboratory on the third floor of his parents’ Belgian drug import firm from where he would grow his eponymous pharmaceutical company. In the years between the 50s and 90s when he was most active, Janssen and his team developed over 70 new medicines, many of which are still in use today. Such prolificacy is unlikely to be repeated any time soon; if current trends hold, a drug discovery scientist starting their career today is likely to retire without ever having worked on a single drug that makes it to market. The cost to discover and develop a drug today is orders of magnitude higher than in the 1950s. Despite this, the probability that a drug entering clinical trials will eventually reach the market has hardly improved in the intervening years. If Janssen were born today, there’s little chance he would be able to repeat his success. He would probably not even get the chance to start. What changed? Some lay the blame for these deterio

In 1953, aged 27, Paul Janssen set up the research laboratory on the third floor of his parents’ Belgian drug import firm from where he would grow his eponymous pharmaceutical company. In the years between the 50s and 90s when he was most active, Janssen and his team developed over 70 new medicines, many of which are still in use today. Such prolificacy is unlikely to be repeated any time soon; if current trends hold, a drug discovery scientist starting their career today is likely to retire without ever having worked on a single drug that makes it to market. Paul Janssen in the lab The cost t

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