PrintThe Burrill Report (March 14, 2011): Heretical Mathematics: Why R&D Cost May Be Overstated (.MP3,19.86 Mb)
The high cost of drug development in many ways defines the pharmaceutical industry. The oft quoted figure from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development most recently puts the number at $1.3 billion to bring a new drug to market. But a new study argues that amount is grossly inflated and suggests that the typical drug costs a fraction of the Tufts calculation. We spoke to Donald Light and Rebecca Warburton, authors of the study that appears in The London School of Economics and Political Science’s journal BioSocieties. We discussed what they see as the flaws with Tufts' numbers, how they went about calculating their own set of figures, and why it’s in the policy interests of the industry to find a way to keep that number as big as possible.
March 11, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-heretical_mathematics_why_rd_cost_may_be_overstated.html
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