On Sept. 15, 2020, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development reported that new anti-infective drugs that won marketing approval in the U.S. during the last two decades took 14% less time to undergo clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval compared to other drugs that came to market during the same period.

Combined clinical and approval phase timelines for anti-infective drugs was 7.1 years during 2000-19, compared to 8.3 years for all other drugs that were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the same period, according to Tufts CSDD.

From the first half to the second half of the two-decade period, mean total phase time (clinical plus approval phase times) for new anti-infective drugs declined by 3.0 months (3.4%), while that for all other drugs increased by 6.8 months (7.3%).