Believe it or not, the Bible states in the book of Ecclesiastes: "A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry; but money answers everything."

When Solomon wrote those words, it was at a stage in his life when he had developed a worldly and a cynical perspective about everything.

Yet, money often does appear to be the answer for everything, especially from my vantage point this morning.

I recently attended an annual pharmaceutical convention where people from all over the world convened to hawk their wares.

The Chemical and Pharmaceutical Intermediate Exposition is a huge event. It has been held in Europe's major convention centers in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Milan and Turin. This year it's in Frankfurt, Germany.

Tens of thousands of exhibitors came to Frankfurt am Main Flughaf from Asia, the Middle East, North and South America, and the EU, jamming hotels and restaurants in anticipation of three days of intense business discussions with existing customers and potential business prospects.

Despite the tensions you may have read about between various countries and the US, the ground is level here. Everyone gets along and there's hardly a mention of politics, race or religion. No one is white or yellow or red or black or brown. The predominant color is green, and that realization is the common ground upon which we meet and help each other make a little money in the world selling the things that make people feel better or live longer.

And while money may be the bottom line, we are doing a greater good by providing the people of the world with life-saving pharmaceuticals.

It has to be this way: the money, I mean. The blunt truth of the matter is no one is running a soup kitchen.

The cost involved in the synthesis of a new drug - most of it spent on the research and development stages - is staggering in large part because the success rate is very low. Few ideas penned on the drawing board ever make it to the pilot plant, let alone your local pharmacy.

And on top of development costs, there are the added costs of ongoing regulatory oversight in the EU and North America, particularly in the US, where the Food and Drug Administration is involved in every aspect of a drug's approval.

A study by Tufts University in 2001 concluded it costs $802 million to bring a drug from the conceptual stage to final approval. The study also reported the average development time for a new medicine is currently 12 years.

But new drugs are only half the story.

On the other end of the spectrum are those that were developed decades ago. Among them are important antibiotics such as tetracycline, penicillin derivatives and sulfa drugs. Many of the foreign manufacturers and their agents who have booths here at the exposition are involved in the manufacture and sale of these types of active drug substances. Despite the older technology and their commodity-like prices, they are important throughout the world.

In the US they comprise a large segment of the generic drug market, where they not only save lives but save people millions of dollars annually.

TheRightPrescription.org explains "Where generic drugs are allowed to enter the market, they are typically priced 30 percent less than their brand counterparts. And within two years, as more generic equivalents enter the market, average prices for a generic version of a drug drop in price to about 75 percent less than the brand."

To put that in terms of actual dollars and cents, an article that appeared in the "Buffalo News" last year reported that the average cost of a generic prescription in 2001 was $21.96, about 31 percent of the $71.18 it cost, on average, to fill a brand-name medication, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

As I sat in our booth and fielded questions from hundreds of interested visitors, inquiring what our price is for the pharmaceuticals we import from China, I was reminded that in a very real sense: "Money answers everything" - at least when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; [email protected]. Visit our website at www.amyfound.org.