When pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline do drug testing on new drugs and think that these new drugs are going to be great successes, they usually let their investors know and publicize this success. But what happens when the drug doesn't work out? In the case of the drug CP-122,721, a new drug in the lucrative depression field that "offers strong efficacy with fewer of the side effects", the Pfizer company said nothing to its investors when this drug became cancelled. Instead of notifying investors, Pfizer said nothing and let the drug disappear. Why weren't investors notified about the cancellation of this drug instead of being left to guess what happened to it. .
Information about a company's "pipeline" of new drugs matters to investors. Drug companies need to communicate to their investors about the new drugs that are in the process of being tested and the drugs that have failed along the way. If drug companies aren't sure how well a drug is going to work, they shouldn't boast and brag about the new drug until they are sure about it. Then if it doesn't work out it won't be such a big deal to investors and the public. This doesn't mean that drug companies shouldn't tell it's investors about its trial drugs, they just shouldn't show them off before they are ready and fully tested. When a drug does fail a company should recognize their failure, and not be embarrassed about it, every drug company has a drug that isn't going to work out. .
Small biotechnology companies with only one or two drugs in their pipeline usually give investors a blow-by-blow account of how these drugs are doing because each piece of news can significantly affect the company's value. All companies should do this disregarding whether they are small or large. If investors know more about the pipeline of a company, they will trust and value a company's stock more highly, even if it takes an occasional hit when a drug fails.
