Discovering and developing new treatments for diseases is notoriously expensive, with many rejected potential medicines littering the path to one lucrative, successful drug. But now it seems it could be becoming slightly more rewarding.
Since 2010, the rate of return on investment in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) has shrunk every year, as a number of much hoped-for drugs failed in late-stage clinical trials, causing serious industry-wide problems as companies scrambled to replace best-selling drugs coming close to the expiry of their patents.
In 2014, this trend finally turned around, as the return on R&D rose from 5.1 percent to 5.5 percent, according to a study by Deloitte.