The productivity in pharmaceutical research and development faces intense pres- sure. R&D expenditures of the major US and European companies have topped US$ 33 billion in 2003 compared to around US$ 13 billion just a decade ago. At the same time, the number of new drug approvals has dropped from 53 in 1996 to only 35 in 2003. Moreover, the protraction of clinical trials has significantly reduced the effective time of patent protection. The consequences are devastating. Monopoly profits have started to decline and the average costs per new drug have reached a re- cord level of close to US$ 1...