X-factor

The Economist magazine is seldom shy about telling companies and government's what to do. The know-it-all tone can be annoying but at least they don't try to hide behind a claim of objectivity.

But it appears that when it comes to addressing Merck's woes (Merck's Migraine in the December 3 issue) they --like others-- are at a loss. Here's the best they can come up with on how to improve R and D productivity:

“Some sort of x-factor is needed to turn research reliably into products.”

Indeed.