Take a good product… say inhalable insulin which, since the insulin molecule is well known, the crystallization process decades old and all materials off-patent, should be a winner. Only a need for basal insulin and replace fast acting injections with inhaled insulin. Tested, approved, 8 year long term efficacy and safety gives it a green light and…? Pfizer could not figure out how to market it and that lovely insurance system everyone wants to expand didn’t want to cover it: companies just couldn’t figure it out.

Then market it to the wrong market segment! Ah, such a thing to see, something that could have been done by any post-grad for thesis work since… what… 1950? It does take modern manufacturing to get human insulin in such quantities, but the crystallization process for other insulins is also decades old. Basically, if I had taken their kit into a time machine and dropped it off at any of the pharma companies in the 1950’s, it would have been out in a few years using animal insulin. Pfizer could not market itself out of a paper bag and, even worse, they are having to fight off a lawsuit for having violated the lantus basal insulin patent held by Aventis… yes they wanted to make that inhalable, too! They get one market for free and mess it up and then kill any chance at the full market.

So when you see drug companies not doing things, remember they can have really bad management.