I think your points are fair. Sample size for their analysis was about 100 drugs. FDA approves about 25 per year. My main point is that drug development is mor

I think your points are fair. Sample size for their analysis was about 100 drugs. FDA approves about 25 per year. My main point is that drug development is more expensive than most realize. Beyond R&D, a lot of that cost is in postmarketing (after approval) safety studies and surveillance- to catch side effects not observed in clinical trials. This process can be made somewhat more efficient as you suggested, but at the end of the day a human is reviewing every side effect report and reporting those back to regulatory agencies etc. I am not qualified to discuss the economics re: your point on pharma r&d - drug discovery is it’s own thing aside from actual drug development.