Abstract: The pharmaceutical industry invests between 10 to 20% of annual sales revenues in research and development, which is far higher than in other research-based sectors. However, transforming an idea into a marketed medicine can take between 10 and 20 years, and costs have risen to over $500-800 million, a 10-fold increase since 1976. Moreover, pharmaceutical research is associated with significant risk, since many drug candidates fail during safety and clinical evaluation, while only one in three marketed agents yields a return on investment.
The rewards for producing a 'blockbuster' can be huge, however, with the best-selling drugs returning revenues of more than USD 3 billion per year to their manufacturers. This appears to be a wonderful return on investment. However, these statistics represent the tip of a pyramid of uncertainty: for every 10000 molecules screened, only 1000 have biological activity. Of those 1000, only 10 will ever advance so far as to be administered to humans, and only one will reach the market place. |
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