Prize money isn't the best way to increase productivity and drug development, especially when the success of a program is relatively random.

FDA and Congress are making great strides in improving the regulatory pathway and intellectual property protection for anti-infectives. But without changes in the reimbursement process, the package of incentives may not be enough to spur innovation in the class.

Here’s a heretical statement: We don’t spend enough money on high-priced cancer drugs.

As drug companies take divergent strategies focused either on research or cutting costs, what might this mean for the path future companies take in the pharmaceutical industry?

High-profile technology companies are revered by society while pharmaceutical companies developing life-saving technologies are viewed with contempt; why the disparity?

The tragic deaths of 55 Americans and sickening of more than 740, resulting from contaminated steroid injections that were shipped by a disreputable firm in Massachusetts, have rightly focused public attention on a largely unfamiliar, but prominent part of our drug supply chain – the practice of pharmacy compounding.

Scott Gottlieb's testimony for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health's hearing on drug compounding.

Drug companies -- at least every one that I've worked with -- would like to develop important new medicines that improve health and save lives. That's what gets every industry researcher I know up in the morning, and what keeps them going through the many highs and lows that characterize the scientific process.

Speculation is widespread about the potential origins of the Boston and U.S. Capitol attacks, and whether they could be related (seems unlikely). Investigations are underway. In time, we also must ask how much safer we’ve made ourselves based on the lessons we learned after 9-11. And whether there are still precautions we should heed.

As sequester looms likely, there’s focus on what it means for Federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Last time FDA had its budget clipped (by a much smaller amount) it used the shortfall as reason to back off some of its commitments under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) to review applications on pre-determined timetables. What will happen this time?