Cost of developing new drugs may be lower than industry claims: trial

See also: Hollywood accounting. It's fairly easy to make something look expensive if you put your mind to it.

Not applicable here because no one is discussing drug companies negotiating percentage commissions with their scientists.

If Novartis was committing fraud by misstating expenses, they would be harming their own executives who get paid in equity. And if they were inflating expenses, they would, eventually, get beat by Merck/Pfizer/Lilly/myriad other competitors.

Edit to respond to below comment:

Hollywood accounting is not fraud because there are no laws requiring media makers to categorize and report expenses and income a certain way for the purposes of satisfying compensation agreements with their vendors (actors/producers/directors/etc). It all depends on each individual contract.

A publicly listed business, however, has to comply with myriad rules regarding reporting of cash flow and assets, so it is always nonsensical to bring up Hollywood accounting when discussing official financial figures reported to the SEC.

Look expensive and actually expensive aren't the same, nor is creative accounting always fraud. That's the entire point of Hollywood accounting (which, in the Hollywood example, helps equity like Disney shareholders).