The cost of a delayed launch does not land in one place. It falls on three people at once: the launch leader, the investor, and the patient.
Independent research puts the cost of a single day of launch delay at around half a million dollars, drawn from 645 launches since 2000.
Operational slips can cost $1M to $3M per launch. Strategic or regulatory slips can run beyond $15M per launch. The runway is also shorter than it was, since more than half a trillion dollars of sales sit exposed to competition by 2032.
Sources: peer reviewed launch research (Tufts CSDD); BrandLaunchX founding dataset; Evaluate 2026 World Preview Report.
The delay is often decided long before launch, in choices no one framed as launch decisions at the time. The leader still answers for the outcome, with credibility and career on the line.
Every slipped month is value that does not come back, measured against a shorter window of exclusivity than the asset had five years ago.
The one who waits. Sometimes months, sometimes years, sometimes until it is too late for the therapy to help.
