Fresh headlines cross my desk almost weekly about the crisis in the pharmaceutical business. Jaw-dropping sums of money, about $65 billion a year, flow into the pursuit of new medicines. Yet every year we hear the same old refrain—a pathetic number of new FDA-approved drugs, just 21 last year—come out the other end.
This highly unproductive endeavor has caused endless hand-wringing and finger-pointing. Some like to blame the FDA for being too much of a hard-ass, setting impossible standards for safety and effectiveness. Others accuse scientists for overpromising about the benefits of the genomics revolution, then failing to deliver. Wall Street is an easy boogeyman, given its fast-money obsession that is out of whack with the long-term financial support drug development requires.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Bigger Isn’t Better: It’s Time for Big Pharma to Break Up Into Little Pharma | Xconomy
Author: Luke Timmerman
