Why Failing Faster Is the Key to Accelerating Drug Discovery

Failure is a nuanced topic in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. From a lack of reproducibility in target validation studies or robustness in early preclinical data to late-stage failures and missed end points, when science goes wrong, it has the potential to hinder progress and impede medical breakthroughs.

Porter

Over the years, the drug development success rate has continued to fall, reaching a 6.3% composite success rate in 2022.¹ In fact, the number of terminated assets among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies more than doubled in the past year² and the failure rate of drug discovery and development grew to 90%.³ This high rate of failure can lead to high development costs, delays, and eventual late-stage clinical failure. And the inherent risks and potential impact of that failure only increase as a candidate progresses through the clinical development process.

But is failure always bad? Or do we just need to fail smarter?

In a success-oriented field, making the case for failure is a precarious balance, and the questions of how and when we fail become critical predictors of success.

At Servier, our scientists have the space to fail early and the tools to fail better and faster when it comes to tackling difficult-to-treat cancers. By following the science from the beginning and leveraging early failures to improve future attempts, we can increase our probability for long-term success, even in the face of declining research and development returns and increasing costs of discovery and development.² This approach also enables us to remain objective about our portfolio, progressing the targets and innovative drug candidates we truly believe have the potential to help patients.

One Innovation Engine: Harnessing External Collaboration
It has also become increasingly clear to me that companies cannot rely solely on their own research to accelerate innovation—it is critical to be part of the broader life science ecosystem and utilize collaborative approaches. Cocreation holds an incredible promise to advance the next generation of cancer research, and with so many companies working on complementary technologies, we can do more together than we can alone.

At Servier, we are actively pursuing collaborations across industry and academia that harness collective intelligence and expertise to accelerate the speed of research, offer optimal environments for our projects to thrive, and work with like-minded teams who share our mission to advance innovation for the benefit of patients.

Equally important is a willingness for transparency about failure. Expectations are understandably high in the oncology space, especially for rare cancers, where therapeutic options may be limited or nonexistent. As such, knowledge sharing, especially when it comes to setbacks, can be incredibly valuable, adding to the collective body of scientific knowledge that will fuel the next generation of discovery. And many times, these lessons can be applied across therapeutic areas and disease states.

Uncovering Lessons That Ultimately Lead to Success for Patients
Patients are at the heart of everything we do in this field, and ultimately, an investment in research is about addressing unmet medical needs and improving the lives of the patients we serve. This requires investing and continuing to reinvest in smart science and synergistic partnerships.

That said, because the average cost to develop an asset from discovery to launch is $2.3 billion (an increase of $298 million from 2021¹), understanding where a drug discovery program is failing early on makes it easier to reallocate and reinvest the time, resources, and lessons to projects that we truly believe can succeed.

To be clear, this is not about giving up on a target or drug candidate at the first sign of a setback. It is about acknowledging what we can learn from those setbacks to accelerate and improve our chances for success. I’m reminded of a quote from Robert F. Kennedy: “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” That perfectly captures the essence of “failing faster.” When we can accept failure and learn from it, we give ourselves permission to move on to what may be the next breakthrough that can improve the lives of the patients, caregivers, and families we serve. 

Author Information
Dale Porter, PhD, is the vice president, head of US oncology and immuno-oncology research at Servier, a global pharmaceutical group with a long-term approach to drug discovery and oncology research and development.

References
1. The IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. Global Trends in R&D 2023. IQVIA; 2023. February 15, 2023. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/global-trends-in-r-and-d-2023
2. Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions. Seize the Digital Momentum: Measuring the Return From Pharmaceutical Innovation 2022. Deloitte; 2023. January 2023. Accessed June 2023. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/life-sciences-health-care/deloitte-uk-seize-digital-momentum-rd-roi-2022.pdf
3. Sun D, Gao W, Hu H, Zhou S. Why 90% of clinical drug development fails and how to improve it? Acta Pharm Sin B. 2022;12(7):3049-3062. doi:10.1016/j.apsb.2022.02.002