Drug discovery is high-risk, high-reward. It takes about 10 years and $1 billion to bring a new drug to market. And only one of 10,000 new prospects ever makes it to pharmacy shelves. Those that do fetch monopoly-like margins and can bring in billions in sales.

The Indian market as measured by the Mumbai Sensex Index is down 22% this year, about 25% below its all-time high reached in January. That’s not very surprising: China is down further (about 35%) and most other emerging stock markets have also fallen. Growth in 2008 seems likely to be slower than in 2007 and there are some signs of a credit crunch.