The financial opportunity for drugs with a relatively modest target beneficiary population was always less attractive than the 'blockbusters'. Now, however, new pressures are upon us, in the form of health funders applying ever-increasing price pressure and the generic manufacturers waiting anxiously for time to pass, to grab the patent, forcing our R&D investment decisions to be based on shorter horizons.  One can hardly lay blame for decreasing investment in the minor league at the door of the major players, when they too are subject to these pressures and the need to ensure good share price performance, which is the obligatory foundation stone for investment.