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First-in-Class Ain't What It Used to Be

In the pharmaceutical sector, the amount of time in which a new product has a market all to itself has diminished considerably over the past several decades. By the late 1990s, it wasn't uncommon for a first-in-class drug (the first drug to use a particular molecular mechanism to treat a condition) to have several competitors in various stages of clinical development--even before it was approved. A few decades ago, a new drug would have a corner on the market for about eight years. Now, that figure is closer to two years.

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