By Karen L. Kier, Pharmacist on behalf of the ONU Healthwise Team
In 2001, If I Didn’t Have You won the Academy Award for Best Original Song from the Disney movie Monsters, Inc. The song was written by Randy Newman and performed by Billy Crystal and John Goodman.
Randy Newman became a Disney Legend in 2007 for his songwriting on 9 different Disney-Pixar movies. He has won 7 Grammy Awards and 3 Emmys.
What if we didn’t have new drugs?
The FDA approves an average of 3-4 novel medications every month. In 2023, the agency approved 55 novel drugs exceeding 37 in 2022. This number reflects novel drugs approved and not the total number.
What makes something novel? According to the FDA, it is a medication with an active ingredient never before available in the US. It is a drug working differently than anything else. In the past 2 years, 92 unique drugs entered the market to help manage a diverse set of conditions. Approximately 35% of these approvals are for the treatment and management of cancer.