Over the years, the pharmaceutical industry has made steady progress in improving the safety of drugs in development. Consequently, in 2015, only 14 percent of Phase III studies failed due to safety (compared to 55 percent for efficacy), down from 21 percent in 2013. In other words, “efforts to remove unsafe agents earlier in the development cycle are paying off.” Much of this success in small molecules relates to careful and methodical work done well before the Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
Frontage Labs

The Value Of Robust Exploratory Toxicology Testing Prior To Pivotal GLP Studies

Over the years, the pharmaceutical industry has made steady progress in improving the safety of drugs in development. Consequently, in 2015, only 14 percent of Phase III studies failed due to safety (compared to 55 percent for efficacy), down from 21 percent in 2013. In other words, “efforts to remove unsafe agents earlier in the development cycle are paying off.” Much of this success in small molecules relates to careful and methodical work done well before the Investigational New Drug (IND) application.