Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • From the Analyst's Couch
  • Published:

Trends in clinical success rates

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Trends in clinical success rates for all therapeutic areas over the past two decades.
Figure 2: Trends in clinical success rates for biologics compared with small molecules.
Figure 3: Trends in clinical success rates for partnered compounds compared with non-partnered compounds.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katarzyna Smietana.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors of this article are employees of McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy that works with the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies on R&D productivity issues. The analysis in this study was funded by McKinsey's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products practice and undertaken independently of any other organizations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information S1 (box)

Data and analysis methods (PDF 126 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Smietana, K., Siatkowski, M. & Møller, M. Trends in clinical success rates. Nat Rev Drug Discov 15, 379–380 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.85

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.85

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research