Approved drugs in EU in 2015_I

When I was looking for some overview of medicinal products authorised in 2015 to enter the European Union (EU) market, I was not really able to find any. There is a report released by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in May 2016 and it is connected to the drugs recommended in 2015 by EMA and its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for authorisations which are basically not the same as drugs actually authorised in EU in 2015.

In EU, the European Commission (EC) is the authority to allow a drug to be centrally authorised to enter the EU market and in 2015, the EC authorised 92 drugs. They are displayed nowadays in the EC community register. Besides this centralized market authorisation, national agencies can grant a drug an access to a local market for certain drugs.

I created my own review on drugs centrally authorised by EC in 2015 to enter the EU market and I categorized drugs according to certain categories. In such way I can easily identify which medicinal products are e.g manufactured by DNA technology, or how many drugs are also for children or which drug was the “most copied” in 2015 among generics and other information.

EMA is based in London, UK and when the Brexit becomes a reality, this institution will most probably move to another European country to serve from the EU area.

Authorised drugs in EU in 2015- some numbers

Four drugs were approved under exceptional circumstances, 3 were conditionally approved and 8 were evaluated under the accelerated review. The accelerated review means that CHMP is doing evaluation under shortened time. However, this was not always translated into a quicker approval since other factors appearing during the evaluation process at EMA like questions and answer processes, etc. could slow the whole procedure.

For further details on meaning of these expressions, search directly on the EMA website or see my free report:

Main anatomical groups (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system- the ATC code) of authorised drugs in EU in 2015

It is obvious that the highest proportion of the drugs approved were in area of cancer and immunomodulation. The nervous system drugs were closely followed. But when we look at new active substance medicines (not previously approved in EU), there is only one new drug authorised in EU in the nervous system area. This anatomical main group (according to the ATC) has also the highest number of generic applications. Antiinfectives are the second numerous group among new EU drugs in 2015 with 6 drugs authorised to enter the market.

I was also curious how many drugs were approved by EC for children (less than 18 years). Need to say that there are drugs which are exclusively for children and drugs which are also for children. I refer here to all the drugs which can be used for children. Out of 92 drugs, this is only 18 (19,5%) drugs. Very similar ratio we can see also among new drugs- 8 new drugs (18%) are foreseen also for children. Drugs for nervous system diseases are the most numerous among all drugs used also in children. However, the Alimentary tract and metabolism area is the lead when talking about new drugs for children with 3 drugs for orphan diseases including the one with the highest foreseen price.

EU vs USA: 2015 Authorised drugs. EC=European Commission; FDA= U.S Food and drug administration. Orphan drug: in EU for diseases affecting no more than 5 people out of 10,000, in USA: for diseases affecting no more than 200,000 Americans.

When comparing EC approvals to USA and FDA approvals in 2015, we can see one marked difference without having look on other features:

Most of the new drugs in EU in 2015 had been approved firstly in USA- more than 77% and only after that they were approved in EU.

Some of the new drugs had been approved in USA years before EU, some only a few days. This can reflect preferences of companies applying for market authorisation, different lengths and requirements of authorisation process in USA and in EU, attitude of authorisation agencies to certain treatments and potentially also differences in drug development activities in Europe and USA.

There are 5 new drugs in 2015 which are so far approved in EU and not in USA, among them a labelling agent not directly used in patients or a stem cell therapy- Ex vivo expanded autologous human corneal epithelial cells containing stem cells.

I will continue in bringing other interesting facts on the authorised medicinal products in EU in 2015 in some of the following blogs.

For further facts and information, download a report for free from our website. 

For inquiry on detailed analysis with single drugs authorised in EU in 2015 and categorized according to certain parameters and further custom-made analysis from this dataset, please contact us on info@martinalutter.com. Examples of other parameters which can be used in analysis include application types (e.g new active substances, fixed combination, etc.), most active companies, most active orphan drug companies and most employed drug manufacturers, chemical subgroup (ATC) categories (e.g monoclonal Abs, protein kinase inhibitors, etc.), closer look on generics (most “copied drugs, most active generics companies), countries where the MAH is based, biologicals type, manufacturing (e.g chemical synthesis, recombinant DNA technology, etc.), organisms used for DNA recombinantly produced drugs, methods of administration and others.