Without a doubt there was a string of novel ideas that eventually lead to Lipitor itself [1]. It is absurd in this context to say that those ideas were "worthl

Without a doubt there was a string of novel ideas that eventually lead to Lipitor itself [1]. It is absurd in this context to say that those ideas were "worthless", and execution was everything. Indeed, if there were no novel ideas on the road to Lipitor, it couldn't have been patented. I am only using patents to illustrate both that "ideas" are worth something, and also that it is actually very hard to have a truly good and original idea. (The WWW is another example of a great idea) Most people's "great ideas" are really not that great at all. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin#History