How can the discovery of novel pharmaceuticals for diseases, old and new, be better, faster and cheaper? The pat answer is, of course, research. But, given that more than 80% of all scientists who have ever lived are alive today, why are there only 10-20 new drugs approved each year? Why does it cost $1 billion and take 15 years to get each one to market? And why are there fewer and fewer global pharmaceutical companies charging us more and more for our prescription drugs?
There are two reasons, one of which - the sheer complexity of biology - we can do nothing about. The other is more tractable and is our focus here - the cost efficiency of drug production. It is poor and getting worse, but we believe that it could be turned around. For this to happen, we have to understand the barriers to efficiency, and how ...
