ABSTRACT
As we discuss in more detail shortly, only 21 drugs launched in the US from the start of 2005 achieved blockbuster status, which entails $1 billion or more in global annual sales, in 2012. Over that time, then, only about 2.5 drugs per year attained blockbuster status. In contrast, a non-exhaustive search of blockbuster drugs launched in the US between 1998 and 2004 yielded a markedly higher average of seven drugs per year that attained blockbuster status, in at least one of those years.1 Moreover, given a numerator of 21 blockbuster drugs, and 181 new medical entities approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the eight years from 2005 to 2012,2,3 this implies a blockbuster rate of only 11.8% since 2005.
