Cost of Drug Approvals

There was a recent analysis of the cost of drug approvals.  I've taken the liberty of plotting these.  Very interesting to see 2 lines of correlation (by color).  The upper plot shows the companies with a poor return on investment.  Not surprisingly, they are the ones with severe problems in their research organizations due to merges and acquisitions (GSK, AZ, etc...).  The lower plot are the higher performing companies - many of whom have wisely avoided the crippling M&A cost (AMG, ABT, LLY) - although MRK has very recently switched ranks.  Will their plot rise?  I hope not, but time will tell...