Innovation by the Numbers
= Number of years required to make a medicine[i]
= Number of direct jobs provided by America's biopharmaceutical companies in 2006. The sector supported 3.2 million jobs (including directed and induced jobs) in 2006 (the latest comprehensive analysis)[ii]
= Spending on research and development of new medicines by pharmaceutical companies in 2009[iii]
= 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)[iv]
= Number of new medicines that produce revenues that match or exceed average research and development costs[v]
1 = Number of new medicines that result from every 5,000-10,000 compounds screened[vi]
= Number of medicines in development[vii]
34 = Number of drugs and biologics approved in 2009[viii]
= Number of new medicines approved between 1997 and 2006[ix]
= Number of medicines to treat rare diseases (affecting fewer than 200,000 in the U.S.) approved by the FDA in the 27 years since the Orphan Drug Act was passed[x]
= Amount saved in hospital costs for every $1 spent on prescription drugs[xi]
= Decrease in cardiovascular disease between 1999 and 2005 due to factors such as better control of high blood pressure and high cholesterol and reduced tobacco use[xii]
= Portion of cancer survival increases attributable to new treatements, including medicines[xiii]
= Decrease in AIDS death rate since advent of new medicines in 1995[xiv]
= Portion of every dollar spent on health care that goes to prescription medicines[xv]
= Years of effective patent life for medicines - about 6-7 years shorter than other products[xvi]
[i]J. A. DiMasi, “New Drug Development in the United States from 1963 to 1999,”
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 69, no. 5 (2001): 286-296; M. Dickson and J.P. Gagnon, "Key Factors in the Rising Cost of New Drug Discovery and Development," Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 3 (May 2004): 417-429; J.A. DiMasi, R.W. Hansen, and H.G. Grabowski, "The Price of Innovation: New Estimates of Drug Development Costs," Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003): 151-185.
[ii]Archstone Consulting LLC, and L.R. Burns, The Biopharmaceutical Sector's Impact on the U.S. Economy: Analysis at the National, State, and Local Levels (Washington, DC: Archstone Consulting, March 2009).
[iii]Burrill & Company, analysis for PhRMA, 2005-2010 (includes PhRMA research associates and non members); Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, PhRMA Annual Member Survey (Washington, DC: PhRMA, 2010).
[iv]J. A. DiMasi and H. G. Grabowski, “The Cost of Biopharmaceutical R&D: Is Biotech Different?” Managerial and Decision Economics 28 (2007): 469-479.
[v]J. A. Vernon, J.H. Golec, and J.A. DiMasi, “Drug Development Costs when Financial Risk is Measured Using the Fama-French Three Factor Model,” Health Economics Letter (2009).
[vi]Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, based on data from Tufts University, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (1995).
[vii]Adis R&D Insight Database, Wolters Kluwer Health, accessed 22 February 2010.
[viii]B. Silverman, "Biologics Reached Record Share of Novel Approvals in 2009," The Pink Sheet 72, no. 3 (2010):3-8.
[ix]Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, “Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2003: New Medicines. New Hope.” (Washington, DC: PhRMA, 2003).
[x]U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Orphan Drug Designations and Approval Database, http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/opdlisting/oopd/index.cfm (accessed 2 February 2010).
[xi]B. Shang and D.P. Goldman, "Prescription Drug Coverage and Elderly Medical Spending," National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 13358, September 2007.
[xii]D. Lloyd Jones, et. al., "Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics - 2009 Update. A Report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee," Circulation 119 (2009):e21-e181; American Heart Association, "Heart and Stroke Death Rates Down, Some Risk Factors Still Too High," press release, 15 December 2009, http://americanheart.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=626 (accessed 22 January 2009).
[xiii]E. Sun, et. al., "The Determinants of Recent Gains in Cancer Survival: An Analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Database," Journal of Clinical Oncology 26, suppl. 15 (2008): Abstract 6616.
[xiv]U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2009 With Chartbook on Medical Technology (Hyattsville, MD: HHS, 2010).
[xv]U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Expenditures," at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData (accessed 6 January 2009).
[xvi]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.
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