Quote Originally Posted by Besimudo View Post

Yep. I work at the School of Pharm and applied science ... this is afct we don't want you to know. But ... 75% of all drugs developed come directly from precursor molecules derived from plants. Scientists still go into the forest thieving off natives in hope of a panacea. lol

Benzodiazepines were discovered serendipitously, much like the popular penicillin - gee it's the last time I clean my glassware!

note: we have even removed the magical (luck, inspired) realm from science to make it more business-like.
the re-making old drugs with new names is true.
big pharma makes billions off this. take a drug that works, improve efficiency by 0.3%, market the drug by twisting calculations and pushing it on doctors, and you're in business.

math's pretty important.