Innovation by the Numbers
= Number of new medicines that result from every 5,000-10,000 compounds screened [i]
= Number of years required to make a medicine [ii]
= Number of scientists researching new medicines in America's pharmaceutical companies [iii]
= Spending on research and development of new medicines by pharmaceutical companies in 2007. [iv]
= Average cost to develop one medicine. This amount is up from $138 million in 1975, $318 million in 1987, and $802 million in 2000 (2005 dollars) [v]
= Number of new medicines that produce revenues that match or exceed average research and development costs [vi]
= Number of medicines in development [vii]
= Number of new medicines approved between 1997 and 2006 [viii]
= Number of medicines to treat rare diseases (affecting fewer than 200,000 in the U.S.) approved by the FDA in the last two decades [ix]
= Amount saved in hospital costs for every $1 spent on medicines [x]
= Portion of cancer survival increases attributable to new medicines [xi]
= Decrease in AIDS death rate since advent of new medicines in 1995 [xii]
= Portion of every dollar spent on health care that goes to prescription medicines [xiii]
= Years of effective patent life for medicines - about 6-7 years shorter than other products [xiv]
[i] Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, based on data from Tufts University, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (1995).
[ii] J. A. DiMasi, “New Drug Development in the United States from 1963 to 1999,”
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 69, no. 5 (2001): 286-296.
[iii] Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2006 (Washington, DC: PhRMA, March 2006).
[iv] Burrill & Company, analysis for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, 2008; and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, PhRMA Annual Member Survey (Washington, DC: PhRMA, 2008).
[v] J. A. DiMasi and H. G. Grabowski, “The Cost of Biopharmaceutical R&D: Is Biotech Different?” Managerial and Decision Economics 28 (2007): 469-479.
[vi] J. Vernon, J. Golec, and J. DiMasi, “Drug Development Costs when Financial Risk is Measured Using the Fama-French Three Factor Model,” Unpublished Working Paper, January 2008.
[vii] Adis R&D Insight Database, 27 February 2008, and Adis R&D Insight Database customized run, December 2005.
[viii] Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, “Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2003: New Medicines. New Hope.” (Washington, DC: PhRMA, 2003)
[ix] FDA Office of Orphan Products, 26 April 2006 http://www.fda.gov/orphan/designat/list.htm
[x] F. R. Lichtenberg, The Impact of New Drug Launches on Longevity: Evidence from Longitudinal, Disease-Level Data from 52 Countries, 1982-2001, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 9754 (New York, NY, and Cambridge, MA: Columbia University and NBER, 16 February 2003).
[xi] F. R. Lichtenberg, The Expanding Pharmaceutical Arsenal in the War on Cancer, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 10328 (Cambridge, MA: NBER, February 2004).
[xii] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2005 With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans (Hyattsville, MD: NCHS, 2005), http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus05.pdf (22 December 2005).
[xiii] C. Smith et. al., “National Health Spending In 2004: Recent Slowdown Led By Prescription Drug Spending,” Health Affairs 25, no. 1 (2006): 186-196.
[xiv] H. Grabowski and J. Vernon, “Longer Patents for Increased Generic Competition: The Waxman-Hatch Act After One Decade,” Pharmacoeconomics 10, suppl. 2 (1996): 110-123.
