Market Challenges: High R&D costs

High research and development costs involved in developing new nephrology drugs can hamper the global nephrology drugs market growth. Developing new drugs requires extensive research, testing, clinical trials and regulatory approvals which involves significant financial investments over long periods of time. It takes over 10-15 years for a new drug to be developed and brought to the market from the point of discovery. According to the data published by World Health Organization, the . total costs associated with developing a new drug from scratch can range anywhere between US$ 250-350 million. A lot of these costs are spent during the clinical trial phases where human testing of potential drug candidates are conducted to evaluate safety and efficacy. Only a small fraction of drug candidates make it past each phase of clinical trials and gain regulatory approvals. Most drug candidates fail during the costly clinical trial phases itself, which results in huge financial losses for pharmaceutical companies. This high risk of failure associated with the R&D process discourages investments in development of new nephrology drugs intended for rare diseases and conditions affecting smaller patient segments.

Market Opportunities: Novel drug delivery systems

Novel drug delivery systems can offer opportunity for global nephrology drugs market growth. New technologies that allow for targeted, controlled release of medications over extended periods can help improve treatment outcomes for chronic kidney diseases. Many kidney conditions require lifelong management through frequent drug interventions. However, traditionally available administration methods like oral pills or injections only achieve brief periods of therapeutic concentrations in the body. These also have issues with patient compliance since strict dosing schedules must be followed. Novel delivery mechanisms which embed drugs inside nanocarriers, microspheres or implantable depots could revolutionize care. Medications encapsulated in such innovative formulations get automatically transported to organs or tissues of interest. These then release pharmaceutical substances in a pre-programmed, sustained manner over weeks or months from a single administration.