Los Angeles Times: How Big Pharma distorts the costs of developing new drugs

[Better Believe It]

How Big Pharma distorts the costs of developing new drugs
A new study systematically dismantles the industry's claim that the research and development cost of bringing a new drug to market is $1.3 billion.
By Michael Hiltzik
April 3, 2011

The statistic that may be most hazardous to your health is one pegging the research and development cost of bringing a new drug to market at $1.3 billion. Its purveyor is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which exploits the number's shock value to secure its lobbying agenda on Capitol Hill.

The supposedly high cost of research and development is also cited to argue against the reimportation of cheap drugs from Canada and direct negotiation over drug prices by Medicare.

These arguments are backed by truckloads of cash: Big Pharma has been the biggest spender on Washington lobbying of any industry, laying out $2.1 billion over the last dozen years to get its way, according to congressional figures.

The industry's R&D claim has been questioned for years, but seldom as thoroughly as in a recently published paper that calculates the true mean R&D cost as less than $60 million per drug in 2000 dollars ($76 million today).

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-hiltzik-20110403,0,788500.column

Read the study at:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/81465-col-drugcosts-new-study.html

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