While anxiety and depression rates are rising throughout the world, experts say new antidepressants won't hit the market for at least 10 years, reports Reuters.
Experts cite two main reasons for this delay: the "failure of science" and hesitance from the drug industry.
Many drug companies have limited research and development in the neuroscience field due to uncertain profit potential.
"I'd be very surprised if we were to see any new drugs for depression in the next decade. The pharmaceutical industry is simply not investing in the research because it can't make money from these drugs," Guy Goodwin, MD, a professor of psychiatry at London-based University of Oxford, told Reuters.
Plus, antidepressants are widely available as cheap generics, leaving little incentive for drugmakers to develop a new, expensive medication that may not offer any additional benefits.
The slow antidepressant pipeline is also due to a lack of scientific research on the drugs' affect on the brain.
"It's partly a failure of science, to be frank," said Dr. Goodwin. "Scientists have to ... get more of an understanding about how these things actually work before we can then propose ways to improve them."
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