It is possible for biological drugs to achieve leaping growth and surpass chemical drugs

[market analysis of China Pharmaceutical network] the leaping growth of biotech drugs in recent two years is particularly noticeable Data changes also show that the balance of the entire drug research and development industry seems to be leaning towards biotech drugs It is reported that at present, the proportion of biotechnological drugs in the global drug research has increased to 37.8%, compared with 33% in 2016 According to the different sources of drugs under study, the drugs under study in the world can be divided into three categories: synthetic drugs, biological products and natural drugs, and these categories can also be further subdivided There is no doubt that synthetic chemicals are still the main source of candidate drugs, accounting for more than 50% of all drugs over the years It is expected that in the future, the small molecule drugs synthesized by chemistry will still occupy a leading position in the source of new drug R & D materials In 2017, the number of small molecule drugs synthesized by chemistry was 7855, with a growth rate of only 4.2%, far lower than the overall growth rate of the number of drugs under research (8.4%) The second ranked drug category is antibody protein biological drugs, with an increase of 15.1% in 2017 Other biological drugs also performed well In 2017, protein, cell therapy and peptide biological drugs increased by 24.1%, 67.1% and 27.0%, respectively Similar significant increases were also observed in the more specific sub categories of biological drugs Does this mean that biological drugs are taking the place of chemical small molecule drugs and occupying the leading position? For the pharmaceutical industry, whether it is inclined to chemical small molecule drugs or biological drugs development at the macro level, the industry has been discussing for many years As we can see, chemical small molecule drugs still dominate, but the growth rate of biological products cannot be underestimated The drugs under research are divided into two categories: biotechnological drugs and non biotechnological drugs Based on the analysis of relevant research data in 1995~2017, it is found that the status of non biotechnological drugs, especially the traditional new chemical entity drugs, is wavering Since the emergence of biotechnological drugs in the 1990s, they have been growing steadily Since 2010, the development of biotechnological products has been promoted to some extent, but the growth is still relatively slow Since 2016, there has been a relatively rapid and accelerated development of biotechnology drugs Up to now, the proportion of biotechnological drugs in the global drug research has increased to 37.8%, compared with 33% in 2016 The leaping growth of biotech drugs in recent two years is particularly noteworthy These data changes also show that the balance of the entire drug research and development industry seems to be inclining to biotech drugs Biological drugs are limited by the way of administration Although the balance point of competition between biological technology drugs and chemical small molecule drugs remains to be determined, one thing is clear - Chemical small molecule drugs will still occupy a place in the future Although biological products have better efficacy and specificity, the way of administration is relatively inconvenient and the cost is relatively high Whether the inclination of drug R & D industry to the field of biotechnological drugs will affect the clinical drug delivery mode can be analyzed from the relevant data of drug delivery routes under research From the statistical data of drug delivery routes in research, in 2017, the top five drug delivery routes in research included injection (5090), oral drug (3264), external drug (530), inhalation (384) and ophthalmic drug (194) In terms of market share, the proportion of injection drugs has increased from 50.0% in 2016 to 52.1%, while the proportion of oral preparations has decreased slightly, from 34.8% in 2016 to 33.4% In addition, the proportion of inhalers (4.3% vs 3.9%) declined significantly in 2017, and the proportion of implants, ophthalmic drugs, external drugs and transdermal drugs also decreased by about 0.1% These data also show that the transfer of drug R & D industry to biological products is also accompanied by the increase of intravenous drug use At present, injection is still a good way for most biomacromolecule drugs Of course, in terms of the convenience of medication, injection does not have much advantage.