The state of innovation in drug development.

The pharmaceutical industry is facing tremendous pressure, not only from payers but as a result of public perception, regulatory hurdles, and the intricacies of research and development (R&D). The latter two are significant in that they affect the number of drugs that may be registered by regulatory authorities, the time to discover and develop drugs, and the cost of drug development. Because drug development has been stagnant in terms of innovation, there exists huge potential for innovation. Failure to innovate drug development will render the "big pharma" model unsustainable.