Who pays for the research and development of new medicines? What medicines get most of the Research and development money? These questions have been highlighted the recent controversy regarding the cost of anti-HIV drugs in South Africa. Private companies seeking to maximize profits, spend on medicines that can be sold to richer, developed nations. The cost of this 'economic rationale' is born by the people of developing and poor nations. Illnesses like malaria get ignored and millions are spent on drugs, which promise to cure the ailments of affluence.
Drug wars - Pharmaceutical companies, claims of investing in research are disputable
* The research and development cost of an average
new drug is only US $ 57-71 million
* Only 22% of the new drugs in the last two decades were medically innovative
* Some of the top pharmaceutical companies spent twice the amount on
advertisement than they did on
research and development
Value of the medicines - Not even one-third of the new medicines produced in the US are important for the cure of any important disease
* Important therapeutic values - 16%
* Modest therapeutic values - 53%
* Little or no therapeutic values - 31%
Public costs, private profits - While private companies
enjoy profits from selling medicines which
find large usage, it is public-funded research which helps develop these
medicines.
Who paid for research that led to the five highest-selling drugs in the US?
* Foreign academic institution - 30%
* Public funded research - 53%
* Private industry funded research - 15%
For highest selling medicines in the US, the percentage of cost borne
by either the US public or
foreign research institutions is as follows:
* Varotech - 86%
* Zantec - 80%
* Mozac - 77%
* Zovirax - 75%
Down to Earth, Center for Science
and Environment, New Delhi, India. Nov 1st edition.
