All industries desperately need research and development. There is no industry that can thrive without research and development. This fact holds when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry. Research and development in the pharmaceutical industry generates income for the relevant companies as well as resulting in a saving of lives. It also results in having the quality of patients improved.
Research and development takes a long time like the case of triphenylphosphine oxide. It is many years of investment. This investment is in form of money and time. The products that are produced need to be tested and this is quite resource involving. So much money goes to the testing of drugs that are developed to ensure that they are safe and efficient as the case of Heterocyclic Compounds. This form of testing is done over years and it is not a onetime thing or event. There are government guidelines which must be met by the manufacturing factories to ensure that they are safe. This happens prior to the drugs' release to the public. Research scientists are at that time prone to perplexity when striving to come up with a perfect solution to life-threatening diseases and debilitating diseases.
This time that is spend as well as the money during the testing period is the main cause for the inhibiting cost of drugs as they enter the market for the first time. The scientists want to recover the cost of their input, and the drugs are therefore initially expensive. After the production and development costs are recovered, it is normal to see the price fall. The pharmaceutical company responsible for developing the drug will maintain the patent of the drug for some good number of years. This innovation reward is a good motivation to have the companies want to develop drugs. This means if a company develops a drug which is successful, it is real business to them. They make a lot of money as they save humanity.
The rewards in the industry make it very competitive for those who wish to get to the top. They need to work extremely hard to be there. Actually, no research gradually will succeed if they don't enroll in some post-graduate courses for expansion of their knowledge.
However, you can still make to the top through other avenues like marketing if you think the research route is so complex. All the same, there are some altruistic reasons that make some to go to research.