CISN Summary of
Drug Development Challenges

Drug development is a long, complicated and expensive endeavor. Each of the stakeholders has different and even sometimes-competing goals, so it is critically important that all aspects work as smoothly as possible.

The major challenges of cancer drug development:

• Length of time from early research to drug approval can be up to 20 years on average
• The overall success rate for oncology products in clinical development is only about 10%
• Cost to bring a new drug to market can reach approximately $1 billion
• Resources are often invested in the development of compounds that ultimately are not viable treatments
• Needs of multiple stakeholders are varied and sometimes conflicting
• Multiple clinical trials must be conducted and many patient participants are needed for drug approval