Fall in R&D returns for big pharma

For top-spending pharmaceutical companies the average cost of bringing a drug to market has increased by more than 25 per cent in the last year, according to a report by Deloitte and Thomson Reuters.

Reported in the Telegraph, the data show that the average cost for the dozen biggest global spenders on new drugs rose from $830 million (£526m) in 2010 to $1.04 billion this year.