to industry of $2.9 billion per approved drug , which is comparable to the Tufts CSDD estimate of $2.8 billion industry investment in each approved drug. This work shows the government served as an early investor in pharmaceutical innovations that are subsequently launched and commercialized by industry.
"Our analysis shows that at least half of the total investment in research and development required to bring a product to market comes from the U.S. government," said Fred Ledley, Director of the Center for Integration of Science and Industry, and the senior author on this study.
Industry has been criticized for high drug prices that make needed drugs unavailable to some patients. While industry claims that high drug prices are justified by the cost of bringing these drugs to market, the present work suggests that the public interest in these products should be balanced with corporate interest.
The Bentley study identified NIH funding for more than 400,000 research publications related to the drugs approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2019. Total NIH