14 December 2017 - It is shaping up to be a bumper year for drug approvals, with U.S. officials clearing twice as many novel medicines as in 2016, yet returns on research investment at leading pharmaceutical companies are down.

In fact, projected returns at 12 of the world’s top drug makers have fallen to an eight-year low of only 3.2%, consultancy Deloitte said on Thursday.

The disconnect reflects the rising cost of developing new drugs, meagre peak sales expectations for individual products and the fact that younger biotechnology companies are accounting for a growing proportion of new products.

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