Health products in the pipeline from discovery to market launch for all diseases
First published: July 2019 (updated monthly thereafter)
Last update: August 2023
AdisInsight is a database from academic publisher Springer Nature that tracks various health products such as medicines, vaccines and diagnostics from discovery to market launch for all diseases. (See more about the scope of the AdisInsight database below.) Presented here is a descriptive overview of these products, which will be updated monthly.
See also:
What you see | Scope and limitations | Data sources | Previous versions
What you see
Charts in the interactive data visualization show the following data for health products:
- Number of products, by type (chart A)
- Number of products, by health category (chart B)
- Number of products, by phase of development (chart C)
- New molecular entity (chart D)
- Orphan status (chart E)
- Number of products, by route of administration (chart F)
- List of products (with additional information in popup windows) (chart G)
Products can be viewed according to:
- Status (active or inactive)
- Stage (in development or developed)
- Phase (preclinical, clinical, or registration)
- Type of disease ( Neglected tropical diseases or R&D Blueprint pathogens)
Points to note:
There is a grand total of more than 63,000 unique products in the pipeline (chart A2) for more than 114,000 product indications (chart A1). (In chart A1, a product is counted once for each indication).
Out of the total number of product indications (chart A1):
- 81% of products (whether active or inactive) are for noncommunicable diseases. (View chart B1);
- Less than half have active status, either in the development or developed stage. (Select the “Active” status button on the top left and view chart A1).
- Most of these active products are medicines, while relatively few are diagnostics. Note that the scope for diagnostics products only includes those with an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) - see data scope below.
- Out of products that have inactive status, the vast majority of these were in development stage. (Select the “Inactive” status button on the top left and view chart A1. Then view chart C).
- Out of products that are active and in a clinical phase of development (select the “Active” status, “Development” stage and “Clinical” phase buttons at the top left):
- far more are for noncommunicable diseases (88%) while only a small proportion are for communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions (9%) (chart B1);
- of the noncommunicable diseases sub-category, the highest number of products (54%) are for malignant neoplasms (select ‘noncommunicable diseases’ in chart B1 and view chart B2);
- of the communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions sub-category, the highest number of products (52%) are for infectious and parasitic diseases (select ‘Communicable …conditions’ in chart B1 and view chart B2).
- Less than 0.5% of active products target a neglected tropical disease. (Select the “Active” status and “Neglected tropical diseases” disease type buttons at the top left and then view chart A1).
- Around 3% target a R&D Blueprint pathogen. (Select the “Active” status and “R&D Blueprint pathogens” disease type buttons at the top left and then view chart A1).
- Over half of all products are known to include a new molecular entity (68%) and over 2/3 (78%) have an orphan status. (See chart D and chart E respectively).
- Of all products with a specified route of administration, the most common route is parenteral (52%) followed by enteral. (View the pie in chart F).
To explore the data further
- Select desired options using the circular buttons at the top left of the data visualization; select more than one button to view according to a combination of criteria.
--For example, selecting “R&D Blueprint pathogens” with “Active” status, “Development” stage and “Clinical “phase show that for COVID-19, 145 medicines are active at phase III of clinical development (chart C) with their names listed in chart G. - Hover the cursor on a data element of interest (e.g. a cell in a table, or a bar in a graphic) to see more information on that data element in a popup window.
-- For example, hovering on the last column in chart G (showing the phase of development) for the previous selection on COVID-19, provides additional information in a popup window with details of the originator, developer and other relevant information for each product listed. - Select multiple diseases to compare (using Ctrl on keyboard).
- Use Ctrl on the keyboard to select, and thus compare, more than one disease in chart B3.
- Undo a selection by clicking the same element again or refreshing the browser.
Scope and limitations
Scope of the data
The AdisInsight database profiles products (medicines, vaccines and diagnostics) from research to market launch for all indications in all regions around the globe that were launched after 1995. The database monitors company websites of thousands of organizations. It also monitors: clinical trial registries across major regulatory bodies and organizations, published abstracts from top scientific conferences, annual reports from pharma/biotech companies and regulatory agency websites. Major newswire services and main pharma-focused news organizations are also monitored. All relevant journals indexed on Medline and Embase are also monitored for efficacy and safety results.
Products are included if they satisfy the following criteria:
- Medicinal products that contain an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
- The medicine or vaccine must be developed as prescription products and follow a government regulated approval process for proprietary (unique) products
- At least one of the developers is a commercially driven organization (a company)
- The product must be a proprietary one
- Biosimilars
- General diagnostics - agents administered into or onto the human body. (Diagnostics must be medicines-based to be included e.g. diagnostic kits are not included if they are not drug-based)
- Companion diagnostics - where Specific therapeutic product(s) are identified as companion for the diagnostic test
- New formulations of existing medicines if they satisfy the above criteria.
Products are excluded when they satisfy one or more of the following criteria:
- Generic medicines
- Medical devices (unless in combination with an API)
- Nutraceuticals and herbals if their regulation is not via the medicine approval process
- Vaccine adjuvants
Limitations of the analysis
- The analysis presented here is updated monthly; but time lags with up-to-date data from the source are inevitable.
- Accuracy and completeness of the information is the responsibility of the data source, see terms and conditions of use.