In 2019, the pharmaceuticals industry invested more than half a trillion dollars in M&A and R&D combined. These “bets” are often expensive and speculative: it typically costs $1bn to develop a new drug, with only a 6.9% chance of getting from Phase I development to FDA approval in the US.
A small minority of products that get marketing authorization cross the “blockbuster” $1bn sales threshold in their peak year. This...