Science needs to move beyond luck if it is to design better drugs for the brain
The Economist:
Between 2011 and 2020 the likelihood of a drug in psychiatry being approved by the Food and Drug Administration was 7.3%. In neurology it was 5.9%. (The industry average is 7.9%.) As well as being less likely to succeed in trials (see chart), neurology drugs also take much longer, on average, to develop, further decreasing their appeal
According to the Global Burden of Disease project 12 mental-health disorders affect about 970m people. Their prevalence has increased by 48% since 1990 as the population has grown. With more than one in ten people on the planet affected, it is a global problem, although what data are available suggest it is more marked in Western countries (see map).
