This is essentially true. Pharma is incredibly expensive (for lots of different reasons), with R&D taking up a huge portion of those costs. So yes, it's safe t

This is essentially true. Pharma is incredibly expensive (for lots of different reasons), with R&D taking up a huge portion of those costs. So yes, it's safe to assume that part of the accounting around those published costs in the billions are all of the failed candidates that never even made it to trials (the failure rate varies depending on the area of biology and the type of drug, but it's generally around 9 out of every 10 candidates [1]. By the time you get to trials, that ratio gets even more abysmal). Disclaimer -- I work for Recursion, a company built around this very problem. - [1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211383522000521 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221138352... - [2]: https://www.recursion.com https://www.recursion.com