WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: New Thinking to Incentivize Drug Development

Despite unprecedented advancements in our understanding of disease process and targeting opportunities, our continued ability to discover and develop new medicines is fundamentally in doubt. These challenges reflect a growing recognition of the escalating risks of drug development (in terms of dollars and time) by established pharmaceutical companies and investors. Such hurdles are surmountable and require new thinking. This opinion piece conveys an overview of the challenge and an example of how we might overcome these challenges with constructive and forward-looking incentives for drug discovery.