If at first... pharma’s most drawn-out development timelines revealed

It took nearly two decades from the start of tremelimumab’s first-in-human study until Astrazeneca saw the drug approved last week as Imjudo. This is undoubtedly a lesson in perseverance, but it does not in fact represent the longest development period of a drug from phase 1 to US approval.

That honour, at least looking at the past 25 years or so, belongs to Kyowa Kirin’s Nourianz, which got an FDA green light in 2019 as an add-on in Parkinson’s disease, a culmination of over 20 years of trials in more than 4,000 patients. An Evaluate Vantage analysis identifies several other drugs that, like Imjudo, offer important lessons at a time when failing early and failing fast are industry bywords.