Oral small molecule drugs in Phase 1 and Phase 2: North America compared with Europe

Where announced intent and disclosed results are concentrated by phase

Future plan signals show where sponsors are declaring what they intend to run next. Result disclosures show where data has just landed. Reading each against the drug's phase shows which end of early development is moving.

A future plan attached to a Phase 1 drug points to a Phase 2 being prepared. A result disclosure on a Phase 2 drug puts that drug at a Phase 3 decision. Together the two panels show how much of each region's early pipeline is approaching its next step, and at which end of it.

Oncology is 40% of the North American pipeline and 27% of the European one

Each therapeutic area's share of its own region, shown as the gap between the two. Bars to the right run heavier in the US and Canada, bars to the left run heavier in Europe.

CNS runs five percentage points heavier in Europe, at 19.1% against 14.2%. Autoimmune and allergy, respiratory, and gastroenterology each run two to three points heavier in Europe. Areas with fewer than eight drugs across both regions are excluded.

The most common indications for oral small molecules in early development

The indications most often being treated by oral small molecules in early development, split into oncology and everything else. Oncology is separated because it would otherwise absorb most of a single ranking.

Acute myeloid leukemia leads the oncology ranking at 24 drugs. Obesity leads outside oncology at 31, ahead of Alzheimer disease at 23 and Parkinson disease at 17. Eight of those obesity drugs act on a GLP-1 target, every one of them oral, in a category where the established products are injectable.

Half of European drugs belong to sponsors who have never reached Phase 3

Every drug grouped by the most advanced phase associated with its sponsor's programs, across the sponsor's whole portfolio rather than this drug alone.

51.9% of European drugs and 42.7% of North American drugs have a sponsor whose most advanced program sits at Phase 2 or earlier.

Sponsor headcount and disclosed funding by region

The companies behind these drugs, by size and by capital raised over the past two years.

Around half of drugs in each region target a rare disease, but far fewer hold orphan status

Drugs targeting a rare disease compared with drugs holding an orphan designation. This measure cuts across therapeutic areas rather than sitting inside one: a drug for a rare cancer is recorded under oncology, and a drug for a rare neurological condition under CNS.

The gap between the two measures is 34.7 points in the US and Canada and 29.1 points in Europe.

37.9% of North American drugs are potent compounds, against 22.4% in Europe

Drugs identified as potent compounds, as a share of each region.

That is 292 drugs in the US and Canada and 47 in Europe.

Two states hold 59% of North American drugs. Europe's top two countries hold 36%

Sponsor location within each region, shown by state or province in North America and by country in Europe.

Europe's activity is spread across 19 countries, with no single market holding more than a fifth of the regional total.