Drug Development stats.

[M.Smythe -x- at -x- mailbox.uq.oz.au (Mark Smythe)]

 Dear Netters
 I want to know some general statistics on drug design and development.
 These statisitics are required for a postgraduate course.
 My questions are:
 1) High throughput screening.  How many assays per year is possible with
 this technology?
 2) Using this technology, how many assays per hit (a hit is a lead compound
 suitable for further development).
 3) Does anyone have statistics on hit rates from various sources
 (terresterial (plants etc) vs microbes vs marine products for example).
 4) Time scale.
 Any consensus on the time spent on:
 Discovery and lead generation
 Lead optimisation
 assays
 Toxicology trials
 Human safety trials
 Human efficacy trials
 any others?
 5) Money.
 Any consensus on the dollars spent on the above:
 6) Rewards.  What are the financial rewards of a drug on the marketplace.
 Obviously the questions above are very general.  I suspect that the
 statisitics will vary on a case-by-case basis.  I only require
 "ballpark"
 figures to "illuminate" young minds on the average costs and time
 scales of
 drug development.
 Thanks
 Mark
 m.smythe -x- at -x- mailbox.uq.oz.au