Wall Street Journal - January 26, 2007
SCIENCE JOURNAL By SHARON BEGLEY
It's a sign of desperation. One reason there have been so few drug breakthroughs lately is that the profit motive actually works against the development of new pharmaceuticals. Drug companies suffer from blockbuster-itis, the belief that only billion-dollar almost-sure things need apply for development. As a result, even the most brilliant discovery may not be translated into a drug unless it has 10-figure sales potential. Also, short time horizons on the part of venture capitalists, who generally want to see their biotech bets pay off in three years, don't mesh well with the lengthy drug-development process.
[WS:] This may be true of the US, but there is more into drug development and production than this profit-obsessed wasteland. AFIK, the second and third world countries have pretty advanced pharmaceutical research and production capacity that is free of blockbuster-itis. The refusal of the US-based big pharma to take on those non-blockbuster remedies offers a chance to the non-US drug companies - which is a good thing, no?
Wojtek