Do you have historical data? Because in the BBC article, it mentions patents, and how drug companies have a limited number of time to make up profits. The article states drug companies have 10 years to make it up, but I think that's even shorter in the US. I was taught in my health econ class that it's 5 years in the US simply because of the FDA approval process.

R&D money spent is cyclical, and GlobalData's report may just be a down cycle where pharma is just trying to recoup past R&D costs. There's also a large number of drugs that are not approved from past years. Pharma has to recoup those costs, too.

From purely a health econ standpoint, that recovery window offered by the patent system is the main reason we are where we are today.