Revenues are still elusive for a surprising number of the novel drugs approved by the FDA five years ago. Emergent safety issues and confirmatory clinical trial failures were less common than lack of competitiveness as the main reason for revenue weakness.

The number of new drugs containing new active substances approved in the EU rose significantly in 2020, underpinned by a strong showing for orphan-designated products and a string of novel medicines for cancer and infectious diseases. Notable among the new clutch of approvals was the first ever COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer/BioNTech's Comirnaty.

While Accord HealthCare has convinced the European Medicines Agency that its rivaroxaban generic should be approved in the EU, Bayer has warned that patent protection for Xarelto continues until at least late 2023. The EMA this week also recommend approval for a number of other new drugs.

The sponsors of up to seven new drugs or vaccines will find out this week whether their products will soon be approved in the EU. The products include two vaccines from Sanofi and what is possibly the first generic rival to Bayer's Xarelto to be assessed by the European Medicines Agency.