As others have pointed out. Its about money. If the compound is expected to be very profitable, then it make sense to invest a lot money to do a large scale stu

As others have pointed out. Its about money. If the compound is expected to be very profitable, then it make sense to invest a lot money to do a large scale study. On the other hand, if it is a natural compound that you can't really patent, the profitability will be much lower. It doesn't make sense for a commercial entity to do a large scale study. If the compound is important enough, a government entity will sometimes invest the money to study it.