Susan Warner | Apr 25, 2004 | 10+ min read
PictureQuestA plain tablet in a no-name blisterpack. It could save a life.Or maybe not.Since 1994, the Food and Drug Administration has approved year-to-year increases in the number of new candidate drugs for human testing in the United States, rising from 3,350 in 1996 to 3,900 in 2002.1 But the number of drugs that successfully negotiate the trial process and ultimately receive FDA approval is frustratingly low. Despite pharmaceutical companies' and the National Institutes of Health's research