Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!oscsuna.osc.edu!illini.osc.edu!djh From: djh@illini.osc.edu (David Heisterberg) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Why AZT is so expensive Message-ID: <315@oscsuna.osc.edu> Date: 17 Sep 89 18:33:06 GMT References: <26871@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <1187@nih-csl.UUCP> <2434@aecom.yu.edu> <2446@aecom.yu.edu> Sender: news@oscsuna.osc.edu Lines: 12 I'm not going to make any excuses for drug companies either, but in the vanishingly small part I have in all of this, I will have spent the equivalent of $1M to do a potential energy surface calculation for just one possible new anti-HIV drug. Research costs can be just astronomical. And you know the saying, "If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be research." For every drug that makes it out, there can be hundreds to thousands that don't. Burroughs-Wellcome may be over-charging, they may not. I don't know all the facts - do you? David J. Heisterberg Ohio Supercomputer Center