A drug pipeline is the set of drug candidates held by a pharmaceutical company that is collectively going through discovery or under development at any given point in time. A drug pipeline may be restricted to a particular therapeutic area (TA), drug class, or extended to the drug discovery process; research and development pipeline (R&D). Pharmaceutical companies usually have a number of different drugs/compounds in their pipelines which is an important indicator of the value, company size, and future prospects. A drug pipeline can include new drugs, variants of existing drugs, and new applications of existing drugs (for different indications).
A drug pipeline starts with new drug discoveries and it is important to assess companies’ ability to discover new drugs and address unmet medical needs, as well as drugs that are currently in the pipeline. The continued evolution and longevity of a TA is dependent on its ability to keep churning out breakthrough new drugs and turning them into commercial successes backed by a growing body of clinical evidence, and by refilling the early stage of the pipeline as drugs move up. There is a mountain of drugs waiting to hit the market and keeping up with their information can get quite challenging.
Medical Affairs teams seek to capture a more complete picture of a drug pipeline, be it for competitor intelligence or for an overall TA understanding. Moreover, in order to effectively gauge the potential clinical and economic impact on patient outcomes and healthcare systems, monitoring drug pipelines has become an essential function. Various methods have been used over the years, some simple while others complex, essentially to augment current processes to monitor new/existing drug developments and to answer some crucial questions noted below:
- Is it a novel therapy?
- Is it an expanded indication?
- Is there a generic product that may impact another therapy or class of therapies?
- Where will it fall in therapy – will it be first-line with significant advantages over the standard of care, or is it another drug offering little difference compared to therapies already on the market?
- What safety and efficacy data can be gleaned from the available clinical trial results?
- What designations has the therapy received that may lead to earlier-than-expected approval?
- What is the latest innovation in providing access and insight into the formulary decision-making process?
More people are doing their daily personal and work activities on their smartphones for the undeniably growing benefits that come with its use. This is resulting from the ongoing tremendous transformation of technology, and mobile apps have become a colossal point of attention; users rely on them in more than one way. Imagine navigating through the product pipelines of multiple pharmaceutical companies and tracking thousands of medicines under clinical development with a smartphone app. Wouldn’t that be a time-saver
3P (short form for Pharmaceutical Pipeline Products) app is intelligently created and designed to gain in-depth pharmaceutical pipeline “digital” information at your fingertips. It is a one-stop portal to avoid reviewing multiple data feeds, separating the sheep from the goats, and preparing all the necessary summary data. It provides up-to-date information on pipelines of drugs in clinical development across multiple pharmaceutical companies and TAs in a simple summarised format (see examples below; created with data from the 3P app and infographics platform Infogram).
The information on the 3P app is collated from public domain sources such as company websites, press releases, clinical trials websites as well as various news outlets focusing on pipeline products. It is solely developed for informational purposes and is independent of any pharmaceutical company’s involvement or influence. It is an everyday resource for pharmaceutical professionals across multiple streams and capacities to gain quick and nifty intelligence, benchmarking, upskill with a broad clinical trials landscape, and meaningful pipeline product coverage. It gives you the power to search the way you want, whether you’re just browsing or want to filter a search by pharmaceutical company, TA, disease, drug target, or mechanism.
This vital information is especially useful for Medical Affairs personnel including MSLs, Medical Managers, Medical Writers, Health Economists, Medical Leads, and Medical Directors. An MSL has a plethora of roles of which a few primary roles include keeping abreast of the latest research and new developments in their area of therapeutic expertise and having a clear understanding of the clinical research process, including product development, clinical trials, and approval for consulting. Staying up to date with the current pharmaceutical pipeline and market overview is paramount for constant learning and educating stakeholders, both external and internal, and the 3P app very efficiently helps in achieving this aim. Below are some unique use cases which illustrate how the 3P app helped MSLs in their daily activities to achieve better outcomes for both KOLs and patients (names have been fictionalized for privacy reasons).
In this use case, Sophie who is an MSL uses the 3P app and is able to stay well-informed about pipeline and clinical trials data for a market overview and competitive intelligence.
In this use case, Jess who is an MSL was able to make contact with a new KOL who used the 3P app for getting information on a clinical trial sponsored by the pharmaceutical company where Jess works.
In this use case, Samantha who is an MSL was able to collaborate with a hospital multidisciplinary team to achieve a rewarding outcome for a severe Multiple Myeloma patient.
In conclusion, the 3P app will provide you with an up-to-date pipeline and competitive intelligence information. My hope is that this app will open doors for everyone to better access the world of information for pharmaceutical pipelines and clinical trials. This vital information can unlock access to drugs in development, raise awareness of new therapies and provide insights into strategic decision-making related to R&D and business development.
For further information about the app and app store links to download, please visit www.app3p.com. Alternatively, you can also email us at support@app3p.com if you may have any questions/comments.
Author:
Amit Lalwani, PhD, MBA
Amit has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over two years in multiple roles and has been a medical science liaison since 2021. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, he has 10+ years of experience in the medical and clinical research industries across different therapeutic areas managing bench side to bedside projects. Recently he has developed a mobile app (iOS and Android) that provides curated and up-to-date information on pipeline products from multiple pharmaceutical companies. He developed this app as a personal entrepreneurial project without the involvement of any pharmaceutical company(ies), to help pharmaceutical industry professionals across multiple streams to be updated with clinical trials and drug pipelines. He is always proactive at building and sustaining strong relationships to increase scientific and clinical knowledge of pharmaceutical products, gathering, and evaluating information to facilitate optimal information knowledge and retention while remaining up to date on the latest industry trends, regulatory, and competitive intelligence.
Have an opinion on this article? Send a message to the editor.