Roche topped industry spending on R&D in 2013 as pharma’s overall research investments rose by $723m, according to a new report.
The Swiss firm, which this week filed a melanoma combination drug for US approval, spent $10bn on research into new products, ahead of rivals such as Novartis, which spent $9.8bn and the $8.2bn spent by Johnson & Johnson (J&J).
GlobalData’s PharmaLeaders: Global pharmaceutical benchmark report shows the world’s leading 30 pharma companies spent $112bn on research and development in 2013, up $723m over the previous year.
According to Adam Dion, global analyst at GlobalData, this increase in R&D spending was partly due to drug makers advancing their pipeline programmes into later-stage clinical trials.
Despite being outspent by Roche, Novartis and J&J were the two companies to increase their R&D expenditure the most between 2012 and 2013. Novartis increased its spending by 5.6% while the figure was 6.8% for J&J.
Dion said: “Roche’s R&D spending was bolstered by continued investment in its oncology and neuroscience therapeutic areas, such as the company’s investigational anti-PD-L1 antibody targeting lung cancer, and the advancement of its programmes for Alzheimer’s diseases.”
Dion also cited Novartis’ R&D spending jump on its Alcon subsidiary, which allocated resources to progress the development of new eye care products.
The report found that a number of leading pharma companies opted to cut R&D spending, including Pfizer, which cut over $1.2bn partly to reduce costs after being hard by patent losses for key drugs.
Merck & Co is also cutting back and is in the middle of a restructuring programme that cut $600m from its clinical operations over the analysed period, a consequence of its respiratory therapy Singular’s patent lapse.