Just how long does it take for translational research to bear fruit in the form of an effective therapeutic? Orac cites research by John Ioannidis published recently in Science that found that the "translation lag" is about 25 years between the first description and earliest highly cited article. "What Dr. Ioannidis shows is that, in essence, a lot of 'translational' research takes close to two decades to bear fruit, and it's fairly uncommon for it to take less than a decade," he says at Respectful Insolence.
Some remedies to cut the lag time include, most importantly, finding off-label uses for existing drugs, as well as multidisciplinary collaborations with focused targets, incentives for testing claims, and requiring large, reproducible clinical trials.