Final answer:
Accurate tracking and effective inventory management of drug turnover are important when a significant portion of the pharmacy budget is allocated to pharmaceuticals.
Step-by-step explanation:
Since 40% of the pharmacy budget is pharmaceuticals, accurate tracking and effective inventory management of drug turnover are extremely important responsibilities.
The high cost of some drugs is due to the fact that many drugs have several steps in their synthesis, and each step typically occurs with less than 100% yield. The overall percent yield of a drug synthesis is the product of the percent yields of the individual synthesis steps. Therefore, if a drug synthesis has a 10-step process with a 90% yield for each step, the overall yield for the entire synthesis would be only 35%.
Improving the percent yields of the steps in drug synthesis is an ongoing effort by scientists to decrease costs, improve profits, and minimize waste.