Diabetes Drugs Are Clinical Pipeline’s Dodgiest Division, Tufts Study Finds

Diabetes drugs carry special development challenges and are the riskiest sector in pharmaceuticals, with one in 13 investigational drugs achieving U.S. approval, according to a report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

Diabetes medications in the clinical pipeline are less likely to enter Phase III testing, compared with all drugs, but are slightly more likely to be granted approval once they reach that clinical trials phase. Between 1995 and 2007, the comparative rate of approval for non-diabetes medications was one in eight, the center’s Impact Report found.

Between 1995 and 2015, 61 diabetes and non-diabetes endocrine products received FDA approval, accounting for 10 percent of all drug approvals during that time.