Public vs. Private Sector R&D Investments

In 2011, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded discoveries contributed $69 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supported seven million jobs. In 2020 alone, the US biomedical and pharmaceutical private sector generated more than $1.4 trillion in economic output. From Reece et al. (Health Affairs 2025) In addition to economic output, private-sector R&D…

Do Americans pay twice for drugs?

That is the subtitle from an article in F1000 from Rena Conti (2020). Some individuals claim that because the federal government–often through the National Institutes of Health (NIH)–fund basic research that can inform drug development and then consumers have to pay for those drugs once again after they are approved, this means that Americans are…