Snippet from the article:
Pharmaceutical industry heavyweights are teaming up to address a challenge that’s long vexed drugmakers: how to improve the way experimental drugs are tested so they can get approved, and reach patients, faster.
Ten top U.S. and European drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc., said Wednesday that they have started a nonprofit organization, called TransCelerate BioPharma, to collaborate on the problem.
Read the rest — Drugmakers cooperate to streamline test process
The article points out that “5,000 to 10,000 potential drugs fail for every one approved“, and only about 5 of those even make it to the expensive human testing phases. So drug companies are looking for a way to streamline the processes and to ultimately cut costs. Hopefully this will lead to new treatments for a variety of health issues being available cheaper and quicker.
The high costs do not make drug development an attractive investment unless there is a significant return. From a financial standpoint, I would not want to be in the Propecia business today. Would you want to be, with the patent expiring shortly and competitors wanting to take away what market Merck may have built?