👉 Background: CSL is the Australian-based global biotech company that's been around for over 70 years. They develop vaccines, therapies but their best performing products are in the blood and plasma space. And get this: if you invested $1,000 in CSL when it listed on the ASX in 1994, it would be worth more than $400,000 today.

👉 What happened: CSL had an idea to create a new drug that would improve the 'good' cholesterol in your body. They were hoping to prove this drug could prevent heart-attack victims from suffering another heart attack or stroke. And, they even spent over $1 billion in proving this up.

👉 What else: But now, CSL has announced that the investment in this drug wasn't successful because it didn't get the results they needed. Despite this, CSL will continue to invest more than 10% of its annual revenue into R&D (more than $1 billion). So, there's a decent chance that some of these experiments will be unsuccessful.

What's the key learning?

💡You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. And in biotech, that could be billions of dollars in lost revenue.

💡Over 90% of pharmaceuticals that enter FDA clinical trials fail and the average cost of development is over $5 billion USD per drug. But, we know that for biotech companies, their investment in R&D is an important driver for future sales growth and impact to society.

💡Despite this setback, it seems like CSL is still focused on their long-term goals to continue investing billions into R&D each year... even if investors have taken $7 billion off its market value.

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