A Report of New Drugs Research and Development in 2020 (IV)

2020 will go down in history as a year marked in every respect by the emergence and astonishingly rapid spread of the first major global viral pandemic in a century.It seems like nearly every event or story of the year was influenced in some way by COVID-19, and in that respect, the year ended on a high note with the authorization for emergency use of the first vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and drugs to treat COVID-19.Despite the pandemic’s dominance of the 2020 headlines, productivity was at a record high level across all therapeutic areas, as seen by the number of products in this year’s review: approximately 50% more than the previous year.Notable achievements include the launch of the first treatment for hepatitis D; regulatory decisions on a suite of biologics for the prevention and treatment of Ebola virus disease, fruit of the 2016-2018 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the approval of the first-ever drug to treat Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that leads to premature aging; the first treatment developed specifically for thyroid eye disease, also known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy; the first nonhormonal, on-demand, vaginal pH-regulating contraceptive; and the first oral allergen immunotherapy for peanut allergy.