2014 Was The Year Of 41 New Drug Approvals In The U.S.

The year of 2014 can be remembered for many things. From a medical prescription standpoint, it might be remembered for numerous approvals by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which hit the highest approval rate in 18 years, providing new treatments for rare diseases and cancers.

The high number of approvals this past year could also be attributed to the bounce-back of Big Pharma, a pharmaceutical company that's been set by patent losses two years ago.

More specifically, the FDA approved 41 new medicines, which is also up from 27 medicines in 2013, according to Reuters. Furthermore, the European Medicines Agency approved 82 new drugs this year, which was up from 79 in 2013, and in 57 in 2012.

Many insurance companies are not too excited about the approvals. As many of the medications and treatments are expected to be for cancer or rare diseases, they are also predicted to be very expensive.

Insurance companies said that it's not unusual for the annual cost per patient to reach around $100,000. While this may seem exorbitant, companies such as Big Pharma are also predicted to make sales of close to $30 billion each year on new approvals.

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