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Re:Prevention of HIV by pfdietz on Thursday August 08, 2024 @02:05PM (#41194465)
It certainly should count; that company didn't get delivered for nothing by the Drug Discovery Fairy. And even more: the companies that didn't get bought by Gilead should also count, since the funders of all those small companies could not tell ahead of time which would succeed enough to be bought out.
Re:Prevention of HIV by FireBeyond on Thursday August 08, 2024 @10:43PM (#41198406)
No, it really shouldn't. If I acquire a drug company that has, say, 100 patents on a suite of drugs for $1B (just using nice round numbers), I don't get to say "I spent $1B on "R&D" for 1 drug" as a sunk cost.

R&D is a sunk cost. Presumably acquiring an active company with a portfolio is an investment.