Table 2.

Lags in drug discovery and development

Drug	Date of key enabling scientific discovery	Public?	Date of synthesis of major compound	Public?	Date of market introduction	Lag from enabling discovery to market introduction, yr.
Captopril	1965	Y	1977	N	1981	16
Cimetidine	1948	Y	1975	N	1977	29
Cisplatin	1965	Y	1967	Y	1978	13
Cyclosporin			1972	N	1983
EPO	1950	Y	1985	N	1989	39
Finasteride	1974	Y	1986	N	1992	18
Fluoxetine	1957	Y	1970	N	1987	30
Foscarnet	1924	Y	1978	Y	1991	67
Gemfibrozil		N	1968	N	1981
Lovastatin	1959	Y	1980	N	1987	28
Nifedipine		N	1971	N	1981
Omeprazole	1978	N			1989	11
Ondansetron	1957	Y	1983	N	1991	34
Propranolol	1948	Y	1964	N	1967	19
Sumatriptan	1957	Y	1988	N	1992	35
Basic discoveries:		11 public		2 public
		3 private		12 private

EPO, erythropoeitin; Y, yes; N, no.