Is Open Data the Silver Bullet for Better Drugs?

"Open data sharing within the pharmaceutical industry is crucial for opening the floodgates of innovation. Successful innovation depends on having a rich supply of high-quality data because, without the right kind and quantity of data, there wouldn’t be a foundation for the research required to innovate. The best way to achieve this critical mass of high-quality data is by improving data sharing practices. Why Open Data is Needed Productivity in the pharmaceutical industry has been steadily declining over the past 20 years, mainly because of increasing costs coupled with a meagre output of new medicines. As explained by R. Mullin in “Cost to Develop New Pharmaceutical Drug Now Exceeds $2.5B,”  it costs an estimated $2.6 billion and takes more than ten years to develop and test a drug candidate. To make matters even more complex, healthcare providers are starting to require better value on spending and clear evidence that new medicines are indeed more effective than the current standard...."