Want to start a fight? Step one: Of­fer up an es­ti­mate for what it costs to de­vel­op a new drug

There’s no bet­ter way to get a de­bate un­der­way in bio­phar­ma than com­ing up with a hard es­ti­mate for what it costs to de­vel­op a new drug. In­dus­try crit­ics like Pub­lic Cit­i­zen have de­light­ed in call­ing out de­vel­op­ers for what they see as in­flat­ed num­bers. Tufts came up with the most fre­quent­ly cit­ed fig­ure: tot­ting up at $2.6 bil­lion. And FDA com­mis­sion­er Scott Got­tlieb even re­cent­ly cit­ed the high cost of drug de­vel­op­ment, ty­ing it to high prices when he laid out a plan to help speed up R&D in the US.

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