Re:Sneaky deals are keeping cheaper generic medicines off th...
by rayiner on Saturday June 29, 2019 @11:51PM
(#20316224)
> This tired argument again. Given that pharmaceutical companies spend more on just marketing than they do on R&D [1], isn't it more accurate to say that the US is subsidizing drug ads? How high would drug prices have to get, and how small the R&D budget, before you'd stop claiming the US is 'subsidizing' R&D.
Annual drug R&D spending isn’t “small.” In 2014-2017, pharmaceutical R&D was about the same size as total VC investment nationwide. (There is some overlap between the two numbers.)
Additionally, the “marketing expenditure” angle is an ignorant trope. The pharmaceutical industry is as efficient as other high tech industries in concerting revenue to R&D. In 2017 US pharma companies spent 20% of revenues on R&D. That’s at the top of the range compared to companies like Intel, Facebook, Apple, and Google. https://www.theatlas.com/charts/N1Gs8E4v. Few would deny that Google is a highly innovative, R&D-heavy company, but it's at 15%.
Annual drug R&D spending isn’t “small.” In 2014-2017, pharmaceutical R&D was about the same size as total VC investment nationwide. (There is some overlap between the two numbers.)
Additionally, the “marketing expenditure” angle is an ignorant trope. The pharmaceutical industry is as efficient as other high tech industries in concerting revenue to R&D. In 2017 US pharma companies spent 20% of revenues on R&D. That’s at the top of the range compared to companies like Intel, Facebook, Apple, and Google. https://www.theatlas.com/charts/N1Gs8E4v. Few would deny that Google is a highly innovative, R&D-heavy company, but it's at 15%.