Do big R&D bud­gets jus­ti­fy US pre­mi­um drug prices? No way, an­a­lysts scoff

Do you want a new for­mu­la for cal­cu­lat­ing “ex­cess” prices paid for brand­ed drug prices? A group of health­care re­searchers found a ripe prospect: Tack­ling the pre­mi­um built in­to US drug costs.

Big Phar­ma R&D is a game of block­busters. Find­ing one, get­ting one ap­proved and then build­ing the mar­ket is a multi­bil­lion-dol­lar quest. And there’s been con­sid­er­able fo­cus on the US pre­mi­um, the ex­tra that big bio­phar­ma col­lects in this coun­try while sell­ing the same drugs in tight­ly con­trolled sin­gle-pay­er mar­kets in Eu­rope for much, much less.

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