MAJOR PHARMACEUTICAL AND biotechnology companies must further reduce the time it takes to create new products in order to remain competitive. This is the conclusion of the latest study, Oudook 2001, produced by the 25-year-old Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, an affiliate of Tufts University Since 1993, the environment for pharmaceutical innovation has changed dramatically, due in large part to the Prescription Drug User Fee Act(PDUFA) of 1992. industry has responded to the legislation the way Congress intended, says Kenneth I. Kaitin, director of the Tufts Center. The act allows the Food & Drug Administration to charge user fees for reviewing applications for drug approval and to use the money to hire more reviewers. But mergers, fragmenting markets, political change, price restrictions, and growing generic competition have greatly increased the pressure on pharmaceutical and biotech companies to develop new drugs more quickly, he explains. The center has found that development t...