Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Big Pharma Profits

 


The 14 largest publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion on stock buybacks and dividends from 2012 through 2021 — more than the $660 billion they spent on research and development according to economists William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, and Öner Tulum, a researcher at Brown University, in a new paper.

The Lazonick/Tulum research shows that the business model of America’s largest pharmaceutical companies involves far more spending on enriching shareholders and executives than on research and development.

Big Pharma rarely invests in prevention, because it has very little motivation to invest in preparedness for a public health crisis. Drugs for prevention do not contribute to share-holder value and profit. Instead, cures are designed once a public health crisis strikes.

Opinion | When Big Pharma Spends More on Stock Buybacks Than R&D | Common Dreams

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