Report in Good Clinical Practice Journal (GCPj) Finds That Novartis Leads the Pack for Ongoing Trials in Autoimmune, Cardiovascular, and Metabolic Diseases Sanofi-aventis Takes the Top Rank for Ongoing Oncology Trials

NEW YORK, June 30, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- In a new Expert Analysis article
published in the July issue of GCPj, Tracy DeGregorio and Christine Blazynski
examine the robustness of the leading pharma and biotech pipelines with
respect to ongoing clinical trials activity, and find that trial density is a
particularly good indicator of the depth of companies' pipelines and focus of
development efforts.

Report co-author Tracy DeGregorio says: "The focus of our analysis was
specifically ongoing, industry-sponsored clinical trials for 20 leading
pharma and biotech companies across six major therapeutic areas. We looked at
the numbers of total ongoing trials by company, by therapeutic area and by
development phase, with some interesting findings. Sanofi-aventis, Novartis
and GlaxoSmithKline, for example, all have more ongoing clinical trials than
Pfizer, despite spending over US$1 billion less per year in R&D. Genentech
also seems to be a success, with its number of ongoing trials rivaling that
of companies twice its size in both revenue and R&D spending."

In a detailed ranking of companies by ongoing trial activity across six
therapeutic areas (autoimmune/inflammation, cardiovascular, CNS, metabolic,
infectious diseases, and oncology), this analysis finds that those companies
spending in excess of US$4 billion in R&D hold most of the top three
positions across the six therapeutic areas with the exceptions of Genentech
(second in ongoing oncology trials), and Takeda (third in ongoing metabolic
trials). Novartis' trial density is particularly strong, securing the top
rank in autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.

"Ongoing trial activity is also particularly useful in examining the
distribution of early-stage vs late-stage pipeline health," says co-author
Dr. Blazynski. "Looking at early-stage activity, for example, for several
companies, fewer than 20% of their total ongoing trials are in either Phase I
or I/II, including Takeda, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly,
Abbott and Sanofi-aventis. The companies with robust early-stage programmes,
those with greater than 35% of total trials in Phase I or Phase I/II, include
Merck Serono, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough."

Density of trial activity around a particular candidate also unmasks
companies' strategies to either disrupt an established market to steal market
share, or enter smaller markets with large unmet need. As an example, this
report looked at the distribution of industry-sponsored trials by tumor type
for the three approved EGFR inhibitors: Erbitux, Iressa and Tarceva.

"Trial density provides an extremely valuable metric for both broad
assessments, such as a company's strength in a therapeutic area, as well as
for granular analyses, like examining specific development strategies by
drug, disease, target patient population, or mechanism of action," concludes
DeGregorio. "It should always be taken into consideration."

Notes to Editors

The report, "Assessments, Considerations and a Revelation or Two," is
part of a new monthly series of Expert Analysis reports to be published in
GCPj. These reports are based on the TrialTrove data set, the most
comprehensive source for clinical trials intelligence, which now comprises
over 70,000 clinical trial records spanning 100+ diseases. This article is
available by contacting Citeline, Inc.

Members of the media may request an interview with the authors.

SOURCE Good Clinical Practice Journal (GCPj)

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