The number of investigational drugs in development by biopharmaceutical companies has dropped for the first time since the mid-1990s, Citeline announced on Apr. 6. At the start of 2026, there were 22,940 drug candidates in development—a decrease of nearly four percent from the previous year’s count of 23,875.
This change is significant because it may signal a shift in how pharmaceutical innovation is progressing. The size of a company’s research and development pipeline is often used as an indicator of future advances and competitiveness within the industry.
Citeline cautioned that some of this decline could be due to changes in its internal methodology for counting projects. The firm said that “in reality, the overall pipeline size has probably been fairly flat over the past few years.” It also stated: “As long as the industry is still producing the goods, there’s nothing to worry about here. A smaller overall pipeline doesn’t necessarily mean pharma is barking up the wrong tree.”
Most therapeutic areas saw fewer investigational assets in early 2026 compared to a year before—including oncology and rare diseases, which usually make up most drug candidates. Cancer programs fell from 9,476 to 9,036 and rare disease projects declined from 7,721 to 7,618. However, some fields such as immunology and cardiovascular diseases experienced growth in their pipelines.
Despite fewer total drugs under investigation, Citeline found that more companies are now running active programs—rising from 6,823 firms last year to over 7,000 at present. The number of Phase I through III clinical trials also increased along with new drug launches by early this year. Roche led all companies with 262 active assets; AstraZeneca followed closely with 261; Pfizer was third at 257.
Citeline noted strong representation from Asian pharmaceutical firms among its top performers for active R&D assets: three Chinese (Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals among them) and four Japanese companies appeared on its leaderboard for top-25 global developers.
