Drug discoveries by drugcos are 'dropping'. And, according to 'experts' at the Boston Drug Discovery Technology 2002 Conference, this could spell big trouble for R and D.
Which is an interesting remark given how well the whole industry has done since 1989 for instance. Then only 25 drugs made it to blockbuster status of $500M each. By 2001 this had climbed to 129.
But greed and cashflow (aka payback) has caused faster launching of drugs to help this attainment along. Till now and "sustainability" has entered the industry equation.
Now patent expirations must also be accounted(patents push prices and with patent period lapse and competition high price is hard to maintain let alone justify.)
Pete Tollman, Pres. of a Boston Consulting Group, says that 75 per cent of the cost of bringing a drug to market is spent on failures. So minimizing failures is the name of the game.
A Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' culture to R&D is being advocated rather than the present 'boom and bust'
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-dickenz--