[za]

"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

-- Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline 2003

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/glaxo-chief-our-dr...

[gruseom]

That's misleading. Many of the most profitable pharmaceuticals (e.g. SSRIs, as Irving Kirsch devastatingly established - see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2622912) are known not to work anywhere near that well, if "work" means significance beyond placebo. There is even powerful evidence against the claim that they work at all.