The global pipeline of new drugs in development has contracted for the first time since the mid-1990s, according to analysts at Citeline, a leading data provider for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Their figures show that 22,940 drugs were in development at the start of 2026, a 3.9% decline from the same period a year earlier. While some of the drop may be due to changes in calculation methodology, analysts say the market has largely plateaued after years of steady growth.
Citeline estimates that between 2001 and 2025 the number of drugs in development nearly quadrupled, rising from 5,995 to 23,875. But since 2024 the overall pipeline has stabilized at just below 23,000 molecules, suggesting a slowdown in the rate of new project launches.
Oncology remains the leading research area, accounting for 38.6% of all programmes. At the same time, interest in neurology has grown noticeably, with the share of such developments rising from 12.7% in 2023 to 14.4% in 2025.
Among individual companies, Swiss drug giant Roche holds the largest pipeline, with 262 drugs. AstraZeneca, the international biopharmaceutical company, moved into second place, while US-based Pfizer reduced its project count and fell to third. Swiss-based Novartis also trimmed its portfolio and lost ground to France’s Sanofi.
Taken together, the 25 largest pharmaceutical companies have seen a nominal increase in the number of drugs under development, but that growth has been driven almost entirely by BioNTech’s portfolio expansion. Excluding that factor, activity among the leading players has declined — confirming a broader trend toward streamlining and more cautious R&D investment, analysts said.
Earlier, Fierce Pharma analysts reported that 2025 was a period of severe cost-cutting for biopharmaceutical industry leaders. Most of the top 10 companies reduced their research and development spending amid political uncertainty in the United States, shifting funding approaches by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and tighter regulatory policies at the FDA.
