> most of the cost comes from human trials (Phase I-III, and mostly Phase III), which can sometimes span dozens of countries and tens of thousands of participants
Uhm. Yes. Again, I'd rather have an actual break down of the costs involved here. At least in Germany insanely overpaying doctors for conducting phase III trials replaced the [at least] $3-4k/day budgets pharma companies had to accommodate relevant practitioners at congresses when it was outlawed.
When the head of a public hospital in a western country can legally triple his/her income by conducting a study for 4h every Saturday morning, I file the costs under marketing, not R&D.
It's not that hard to estimate clinical trials costs. Last I checked you were looking at $10-20K per patient per year. It all depends on how much monitoring you are doing.
Now run the math. For a broadly used drug, you might need a trial of 20,000 people over 3 years (if you're looking for a long-term benefit). That's what a lot of the statin drugs did. That alone would be $1.2B at the high end, $600M at the low end.
And you have to run a minimum of two phase 3 trials. Follow on trials are even more.
Uhm. Yes. Again, I'd rather have an actual break down of the costs involved here. At least in Germany insanely overpaying doctors for conducting phase III trials replaced the [at least] $3-4k/day budgets pharma companies had to accommodate relevant practitioners at congresses when it was outlawed.
When the head of a public hospital in a western country can legally triple his/her income by conducting a study for 4h every Saturday morning, I file the costs under marketing, not R&D.