The drug lag: an update of new drug introductions in the United States and in the United Kingdom, 1977 through 1987.

This report updates previous studies that documented the existence of a significant lag between new drug introductions in the United Kingdom and in the United States. During the 11-year period from 1977 through 1987, the United Kingdom led the United States in the number of first introductions of new drugs (114 versus 41), in average lead time for mutually available drugs (60.7 versus 28.9 months), and in the number of exclusively available drugs (70 versus 54). Analysis by therapeutic category indicated large United Kingdom leads in the introduction of respiratory (5.1 years), cardiovascular (3.2 years), central nervous system (3.2 years), and anti-cancer (2.9 years) agents, and shorter leads for anesthetic and analgesic (2.0 years), gastrointestinal (2.0 years), endocrine (1.4 years), and anti-infective (0.8 years) agents. A comparison of the 5-year period from 1983 through 1987 with the previous 5-year period (1978 through 1982) showed no change in the length of the lag time (1.9 years for each period). These results indicate that the United States continues to lag behind the United Kingdom in the availability of new drugs.