While commonly used as an example, I'll note this isn't actually even always true for antibiotics. The development of Fidaxomicin/Difficid is actually an examp

While commonly used as an example, I'll note this isn't actually even always true for antibiotics. The development of Fidaxomicin/Difficid is actually an example of a fairly inexpensive clinical trial (by clinical trial standards), and Merck didn't buy Cubist for $9.5 billion for a drug they don't think will recover their outlay.