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The
new england journal
of
medicine
n engl j med 372;20 nejm.org may 14, 2015
1972
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DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1503146
The Cost of Drug Development
To the Editor: In his Perspective article in this
issue of the Journal, Avorn
1
comments on the
methods and policy implications of our most re-
cent study of the costs of new drug research and
development (R&D).
2
Avorn makes the valid and
important point that not all costs associated with
the discovery and development of new drugs are
borne by the private sector. Our study was de-
signed to capture only the costs incurred by in-
dustry. The full social cost would be the sum of
the private costs and government and nonprofit
funding for research that contributes to the dis-
covery and development of new drugs. The latter
element of social cost would be very difficult to
quantify adequately. Our sample selection crite-
ria do not exclude cases in which companies use
information obtained from research funded by
nonprofits or government to guide their own ac-
tivities. By and large, R&D efforts in the private
and public sectors are complements, not substi-
tutes. The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug De-
velopment recently issued a white paper detailing
the relative R&D contributions of the private and
public sectors for the same set of drugs men-
tioned in Avorn’s article.
3
These scientific and
development histories demonstrate the rich inter-
connectivity of all sectors in the drug-discovery
and drug-development ecosystem.
We would also like to address a few additional
discrete points made by Avorn. First, our meth-
ods are already fully known. We have provided a
methods backgrounder
4
and noted that the meth-
ods are the same as those used in our previous
studies. A full exposition of methods can be
found in our study published in 2003.
5
Second, our definition of “self-originated” is
perhaps broader than what is suggested. It in-
cludes compounds that originated in an acquired
company.
Third, drug failures are key contributors to
development costs. Our estimate of the clinical-
approval success rate of 11.8% (as compared with
21.5% in our previous study) was based on pub-
licly available information (commercial pipeline
databases) for a broad set of companies regard-
ing investigational compounds that met survey-
inclusion criteria (nearly 1500 molecules). It is
consistent with results from other studies.
Finally, pharmaceutical companies are over-
whelmingly equity-financed. If the offering of debt
(corporate bonds) at low rates were a superior
form of financing for them, then company capi-
tal structures would ref lect that. Investors would
not fund the R&D activities of drug companies
at the bond rate levels indicated in Avorn’s article.
The discount rate that we use represents the
funding requirements that were actually experi-
enced, on average, by drug developers during the
period that is analyzed.
Joseph A. DiMasi, Ph.D.
Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Boston, MA
joseph.dimasi@tufts.edu
Henry G. Grabowski, Ph.D.
Duke Universit y
Durham, NC
Ronald W. Hansen, Ph.D.
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY
Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with
the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.
1. Avorn J. The $2.6 billion pill — methodologic and policy
considerations. N Engl J Med 2015;372:1877-9.
2. DiMasi JA, Grabowski HG, Hansen RW. Innovation in the
pharmaceutical industry: new estimates of R&D costs. Boston:
Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, November 18,
2014 (
http://csdd.tufts.edu/news/complete_story/cost_study_press
_event_webcast
).
3. Chakravarthy R, Cotter K, DiMasi JA, Milne C-P, Wendel N.
Public and private sector contributions to the research and devel-
opment of the most transformational drugs of the last 25 years.
Boston: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, January
2015 (http://csdd.tufts.edu/files/uploads/PubPrivPaper2015.pdf ).
4. How the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
pegged the cost of a new drug at $2.6 billion. Boston: Tufts
Center for the Study of Drug Development, November 18, 2014
(http://csdd.tufts.edu/files/uploads/cost_study_backgrounder.pdf ).
5. DiMasi JA, Hansen RW, Grabowski HG. The price of innova-
tion: new estimates of drug development costs. J Health Econ
2003;22:151-85.
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1504317
Correspondence Copyright © 2015 Massachusetts Medical Society.
The New England Journal of Medicine
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