The Truly Staggering Cost Of Inventing New Drugs
10 February 2012 | FORBES | Matthew Herper
Matthew Herper covers science and medicine for FORBES.
The Truly Staggering Cost Of Inventing New Drugs
10 February 2012 | FORBES | Matthew Herper
Matthew Herper covers science and medicine for FORBES.
During the Super Bowl, a representative of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly posted the on the company’s corporate blog that the average cost of bringing a new drug to market is $1.3 billion, a price that would buy 371 Super Bowl ads, 16 million official NFL footballs, two pro football stadiums, pay of almost all NFL football players, and every seat in every NFL stadium for six weeks in a row. This is, of course, ludicrous.
The average drug developed by a major pharmaceutical company costs at least $4 billion, and it can be as much as $11 billion.
Research Spending Per New Drug
| Company | Number Drugs Approved | R&D Spending Per Drug ($Mil) | Total R&D Spending 1997-2011 ($Mil) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AstraZeneca | 5 | 11,790.93 | 58,955 |
| Glaxo Smith Kline | 10 | 8,170.81 | 81,708 |
| Sanofi | 8 | 7,909.26 | 63,274 |
| Roche Holding | 11 | 7,803.77 | 85,841 |
| Pfizer | 14 | 7,727.03 | 108,178 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 13 | 5,885.65 | 88,285 |
| Eli Lilly & Co. | 11 | 4,577.04 | 50,347 |
| Abbott Laboratories | 8 | 4,496.21 | 35,970 |
| Merck & Co Inc | 16 | 4,209.99 | 67,360 |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. | 11 | 4,152.26 | 45,675 |
| Novartis AG | 21 | 3,983.13 | 83,646 |
| Amgen Inc. | 9 | 3,692.14 | 33,229 |
| Sources: InnoThink Center For Research In Biomedical Innovation; Thomson Reuters Fundamentals via FactSet Research Systems | |||
Natureza Patents New Antibiotic Agents
Natureza’s patented formulations introduce a transformative new class of antibiotic agents that overcome bacterial resistance and removes the time barrier of investment return.
Natureza’s research offers a true paradigm shift, one that would remove the imbalance in development cost by eliminating the ability of bacteria to become resistant. With the promise of new drugs being able to be marketed for years providing not only the time to recover investment, but a profit as well, a new investment environment would emerge that would encourage the development of new, much needed antibiotics.
This work is protected by several US and foreign patents and patents pending.
Lack of New Antibiotics Threatens Global Efforts to Contain Drug-Resistant Infections
“Never has the threat of antimicrobial resistance been more immediate and the need for solutions more urgent,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO.
