Basically there is funding for early research, and for drugs that are really close to release, but the years in between (the drudgery) aren't very interesting to investors so capital is hard to come by to keep projects alive.

An acquaintance is $600m into a new type of Malaria testing and his funding is slowing, but is frustrated because he feels he is closer then ever. Frankly im amazed he got this far, thats a lot of burn.

Basically funding for drug research is all screwy!