Cutting the cost of drug development?

The cost of drug development has risen markedly in the past 30 years, with studies now reporting values exceeding US $800 million. As these spiralling costs threaten to make the development of new drugs increasingly unaffordable for both developing companies and consumers, it is clear that efforts should be made to address this problem. All aspects of the drug discovery and development process should be examined for potential cost savings, but I focus here in particular on the current regulatory requirements.