Clinical trials: Investment in Chile grew by 62% in three years

The Survey and Longitudinal Studies Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile conducted a study on companies affiliated with the Chilean Pharmaceutical Innovation Chamber (CIF), revealing an investment of approximately US$136 million by 2022.

One of the main goals of the global pharmaceutical industry is the development of new medicines. About 6,000 medicines are currently being researched by companies mainly from the United States, Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, with an investment that exceeds US$200 billion around the world.

The development of new medicines focuses mainly on the areas of oncology, vaccines, neurology and gastroenterology, for therapeutic work in diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, fatty liver, irritable bowel syndrome and obesity.

And in Chile? The Chilean Chamber of Pharmaceutical Innovation (CIF Chile) together with InvestChile raised the need to carry out a study to analyze investment in clinical trials, sponsored by the pharmaceutical innovation laboratories that are part of the organization. This, with the aim of highlighting the importance of the sector as a driver of research and development (R+D) in the biomedical sciences, in order to enhance the implementation of strategies to attract clinical trials and, ultimately, greater R+D investment to the country.

The results of the study, conducted by the Survey and Longitudinal Studies Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, were extremely positive: investment in clinical trials increased from US$79 million in 2019 to US$122 million in 2021, and estimates for 2022 point to an investment of more than US$136 million. In the last three years (2020-2022), the average investment is 62% higher than the amount in 2019.

Another important fact is that spending on clinical trials represented 40.7% of total R+D spending financed by companies in Chile in 2020.

More female employment

With regard to jobs created, the pharmaceutical companies participating in the study declared that they had employed 2,111 workers during 2021, while 543 people were subcontracted. A figure that particularly stands out when analyzing the personnel dedicated to R+D tasks, 77.3% were women, which is above the 39.2% female participation in the sector at the national level for 2020.