Creating any type of medicine takes a lot of time and labor, but there is an assumption that all drug development follows a linear path of trials before it can see a public release, this is not necessarily the case. Thousands of scientists, from thousands of different locations, conduct research over the course of many years before a drug can be considered safe enough to be on the open market. Studies have shown that the journey to getting approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is always a bit different.

A recent publication on the Washington Post provides some added insight into the labor-intensive process of developing life-saving treatments.