I once read an article on some of these practices. From memory, one company claimed the opportunity cost of investing in the stock market and gaining an assumed 12% per annum as part of their 'research cost'.

Edit: I think the article referenced Joe DiMasi's work [0], which uses a Capital Asset Pricing Model for cost of capital. Essentially, it says there's only one source of risk in the world, and you get paid 11% per annum for taking that risk. I'm pretty sure this work really informed public policy. Shitty economics strikes again.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12606142