The number of new drugs approved per billion US dollars spent on research and development (R&D) has fallen around 80-fold in inflation-adjusted terms since 1950, despite advances in many of the scientific and technological inputs into the R&D process. Given the apparent lack of impact of proposed solutions to declining R&D efficiency so far, Scannell and colleagues ask whether the underlying problems have been correctly diagnosed and discuss factors that they consider to be the primary causes.
- Jack W. Scannell
- Alex Blanckley
- Brian Warrington