What Awaits These Phase 3 Trials - Guaranteed Success Or Costly Disappointment?

(RTTNews) - Drug companies spend billions on R&D, which is the lifeline of the pharma industry. According to a report published by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, it costs about $2.6 billion to develop a new drug and bring it to market. A major share of the discovery and development costs of a company goes in running phase III clinical studies of new pharmaceuticals.

Despite showing promising results in phase II studies, many compounds fail in late-stage testing. Flawed trial design, errors in determining the optimal dose, faulty methods adopted in data collection & analysis and data integrity issues are some of the reasons that lead to the failure of drugs during phase III, according to Sy Pretorius, the Chief Scientific Officer of life sciences consulting firm, PAREXEL International Corp. (PRXL).

A failed phase III study could prove a costly disappointment for a pharma company and more so if it is a small firm.

Here's a list of some companies that are scheduled to report phase III trial results this quarter.