Saturday, March 03, 2018

Big Pharma's R and D Scam

Bryn Gay, Hepatitis C Project Co-Director at the Treatment Action Group explains the government's National Institutes of Health  funded $62.4 million for the basic science behind the breakthrough drug sofosbuvir, it was purchased by the firm Gilead for $11 billion. Gilead then turned around and priced at up to six-figures, even though a 12-week treatment course of costs less than $100 to produce.

“Companies have raked in profits of over $70 billion from hep C medicines, yet companies like Gilead and Janssen have walked away from additional hep C research, such as for a preventative vaccine... We can’t rely on Pharma to set R&D agendas shaped by how much profit can be generated."

According to a new study by a small, partly industry-funded think tank called the Center for Integration of Science and Industry (CISI), it is existentially important. No NIH funds, no new drugs, no patents, no profits, no industry.

 Between 2010 and 2016, The authors found that each of the 210 medicines approved for market came out of research supported by the NIH. Of the $100 billion it spent nationally during this period, more than half of it—$64 billion—ended up helping the development of 84 first-in-class drugs.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/taxpayers-not-big-pharma-have-funded-research-behind-every-new-drug-2010



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