Where does Pfizer go for its refund?

Media reports indicate that Pfizer was in the midst of spending more than $800 million developing its new cholesterol drug torcetrapib, which it stopped this week due to deaths and other problems observed in clinical trials of the experimental drug. This is sad news for heart patients, and we're always disappointed to hear that a treatment that held promise did not pan out.

But it's also an important reminder of how difficult drug development is, and how grateful we should be when a new treatment for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis actually does come to market successfully.

If torcetrapib had worked as hoped, Pfizer would have made billions of dollars, and critics would have howled in protest. Will those critics now help Pfizer recover its $800 million?