Rick,

Being in the drug/medical device research industry (which is a multi billion dollar industry that is born out of FDA red tape alone) - I could go on for hours about the hurdles to medicine development. People get upset at the amount of time it takes to get drugs to market, and they complain about the costs of them, and how much the drug companies spend on advertising their drugs.

If they knew the huge amount of work it takes to get something as benign as a simple eye drop, or nose spray to market, they'd rethink their targets of scorn.

That being said, the people that do this work, all keep the fact that they are helping people in the backs of their minds. When I do get into the middle of my 80 hour work weeks, it makes coping with it a lot easier knowing that the work I do - does in fact end up helping people (and animals!) heal.