| The typical consumer never gives a thought to the over-the-counter medication they
purchase, nor to the prescription drug they sign their name for at the pharmacy –
other than perhaps to give a rhetorical complaint about the price. In contrast, to any
individual in the pharmaceutical industry, every bottle of pills, every jar of medicine
and every tube of ointment represent a tremendous achievement; a victory for
innovation, science, people, technology, investment and time.
That victory has been the result of a
long battle. But today, the fight for new,
truly differentiated medicines is getting
fiercer. Fewer candidate drugs are being
successfully developed. Development
costs (getting a successful drug to
market) have been climbing for years and
now hover at around $1 billion – and
that’s rising constantly, despite over 80
per cent of compounds not making it to
market. In addition, drugs take eight or
more years on average to proceed through
the various stages of clinical trials. |
