Quiz

Making a new medicine takes approximately the same amount of time as:

• a) getting a child from kindergarten to high school graduation (13 years)
• b) getting a spacecraft to Saturn (7 years)
• c) getting around the world by foot (4 years)

Which costs more: a space shuttle launch or the development of one drug?

• a) a space shuttle mission
• b) a new drug
• c) about the same

How many medicines are now in development for cancer?

• a) 6
• b) 60
• c) 160
• d) Over 600

How much has the HIV/AIDS death rate fallen in the U.S. since the mid-1990s?

• a) 0%
• b) 10%
• c) 50%
• d) 70%

How many medicines were approved for rare diseases (affecting fewer than 200,000 people) between 1995 and 2005?

• a) 27
• b) 80
• c) over 160
• d) none

Who discovers the most medicines?

• a) the government
• b) private-sector researchers
• c) about the same

What do pharmaceutical companies spend more on -- promotion or research?

• a) promotion
• b) researching and developing new medicines
• c) about the same on both

Of America's total spending on health care, how much is for prescription drugs?

• a) 10%
• b) 15%
• c) 25%
• d) 50%