What can a close look at the lifespan of medicines tell us about the drug industry? A lot, it turns out.

That's the subject of a new in-depth report, jointly released earlier this year by STAT and QuintilesIMS Institute. The analysis, which covers 667 new drugs released in the US over the past two decades, tracks the changing dynamics affecting medicines from the filing of their first patent to the moment the floodgates open to generic competition.