Law and research could add up to profitable niche drugs

摘要

In response to your Editorial "A changing drug supply" (Nature 445, 460; 2007), W. Ross Tracey points out in Correspondence that niche drugs may be just as expensive as blockbuster drugs to bring to the market, but a pharmaceutical company's revenue from them is likely to be only a fraction of what it can earn from selling blockbusters ("Niche drugs aren't a cheap alternative to blockbusters" Nature 445,818;2007).