The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) recently published its Meds Pipeline Monitor 2022 report, which highlights medicines in the pipeline that may impact future clinical practice and drug spending in Canada if approved for sale.

By The Numbers

A summary of the key findings in the 2022 report includes:

• Over 9,000 new medicines in the pipeline, including 165 in pre-registration, 1,092 in Phase III clinical trials, and 3,927 in Phase II clinical trials.
• 30% (representing the largest share of new medicines) relate to oncology.
• 15% (second largest) relate to infectious diseases, largely due to the increased number of COVID-19 treatments.
• 11% (third largest) relate to the central nervous system, targeting therapeutic areas such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
• 28 late-stage (i.e. Phase III and pre-registration) new medicines, including 5 new gene therapies, were selected for inclusion on the new medicines list.   

Key Trends in 2022

• An ongoing trend since 2020, approvals for drugs for rare diseases continue to rise.
• The gene and cell therapy pipeline is growing rapidly, with over 600 new therapies in the area at various phases of development.
• The biosimilars pipeline is also expanding, with Health Canada having approved 51 biosimilars as of March 2023.

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