Discontinued biological drugs in 2008.

This perspective is part of an ongoing series of articles that describe the drugs that were dropped from clinical development during the previous year. This paper focuses on those drugs that were discontinued in 2008. The drugs represent a diverse collection of compounds targeted at diseases including cancer, diabetes, infections, arthritis, HIV, restenosis, allergies, anaemia, osteoporosis, wound healing, and growth deficiency. No consistent theme is apparent that accounts for the diversity of discontinued drugs. Still, this diversity, coupled with the numbers of novel drugs that were approved in 2008 suggests a healthy ongoing drug development process.