What would you do with a billion dollars? Some would buy 371 Super Bowl ads, others may buy an island, but in the pharmaceutical world, a billion dollars is just a sliver of how much it costs to invent a new drug. According to the Forbes article, “The Truly Staggering Cost Of Inventing New Drugs”, the average drug developed by a major pharmaceutical company can cost as much as $11 billion!
The skyrocketing cost of inventing new drugs implies that medicine should be pricey. After all, countless hours of research and testing new drugs in laboratories across the world account for much of the hefty cost of inventing new drugs. However, what happens when the drugs fail to be approved and plummet in the medical market? Currently, less than 1 in 10 drugs that are tested in human clinical trials succeed. What does this say about the pharmaceutical industry? How about the billions of dollars being invested every year into new drugs? About the people who need and rely on new drug development?
What do you think about the skyrocketing cost of drug development? Will prices only get higher from here? Let us know your thoughts!