Much is made of the remarkable research and development conducted by pharmaceutical companies. Too much, in fact. But whether you believe that their labs are thrumming with activity or that their job is merely to patent and profit from discoveries made with taxpayer dollars in the public sector, the current situation remains a problem: The drug pipeline has dried up. The new products aren't coming. Don't believe me? Ask The Wall Street Journal. Or, better yet, ask Merrill Goozner, who's running an important series of posts on the apparent slowdown of innovation in pharmaceutical sector. His first post explained just how bad things have gotten. Today's entry focused on the perverse financial incentives (and the horribly misguided patent system) which encourage the development of me-too drugs, discourage attention to rarer diseases, and impede the transformation of research into product. Both are well worth a read.
