Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Pharmaceutical R&D: the road to positive returns

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 8, pages 609–610 (2009)Cite this article

Sizing the challenge

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Improving the return on small-molecule R&D.
Figure 2: Output of model.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eric David, M.D., Tony Tramontin, Ph.D., and Rodney Zemmel, Ph.D., are at McKinsey & Company, 55 East 52nd Street, New York, New York 10055, USA. Eric_David@mckinsey.com; Rodney_Zemmel@mckinsey.com,

    Eric David, Tony Tramontin & Rodney Zemmel

  2. Tony_Tramontin@mckinsey.com,

    Eric David, Tony Tramontin & Rodney Zemmel

Authors
  1. Eric David
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tony Tramontin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rodney Zemmel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Supplementary information

Supplementary information S1 (box)

Methodology to estimate the internal rate of return on R&D investments (PDF 296 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

David, E., Tramontin, T. & Zemmel, R. Pharmaceutical R&D: the road to positive returns. Nat Rev Drug Discov 8, 609–610 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2948

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2948

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing