Developing new drugs requires huge investments in time and money, often with frustrating results—but discovering new cures for patients is what drives the industry. Now, we must ensure that price controls don’t cause needed investment to dry up.
“Our pipeline is our future. It’s an engine that will drive us 5, 10 and 20 years from now,” explains AbbVie Chairman and CEO Richard A. Gonzalez.
AbbVie has spent almost $50 billion on drug development since their inception in 2013—but “most new molecules never make it out of the lab, and it takes hard work and dedication to translate foundational science into a viable new medicine."
There are a few things Gonzalez wants you to know about R&D investment:
- “R&D involves taking big risks.” “It takes an average of 10 years and $2 to $3 billion to bring one new medicine to market. Less than 12% of new molecular entities that enter clinical trials” receive FDA approval.
- The pipeline attracts great minds. “The top scientists in their fields come to AbbVie” because a willingness to invest in R&D means a potential to make real breakthroughs.
- “Existing medicines” support R&D investment. “Revenue generated by our on-market medicines supports our ongoing R&D investment, funding future treatments and cures. And our R&D work does not end when a medicine is approved.”
- R&D investment yields future cures. AbbVie’s desire to thrive keeps the company seeking new medicines for more ailments.
But drug price controls like those proposed in H.R. 3 are “associated with a 0.5 percent average annual reduction in the number of new drugs entering the market in the first decade...increasing to an 8 percent annual average reduction in the third decade,” said the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That’s nearly 60 forgone medicines in the first three decades alone.
“Such draconian measures would immediately halt private funding of drug discovery and development,”wrote 400 investors and small biotechs. “The loss of hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs would be swift, though it may take longer for the public to sense the loss of future treatments and cures.”
So, what’s next? H.R. 3 stalled in last month’s reconciliation markup, and Speaker Pelosi said last week she would now support a scaled-back drug pricing measure—but what that looks like remains unknown. BIO will continue to keep the pressure on Congress to oppose misguided plans that would hurt patients and investment in future cures—join us.
Listen: Investors, small biotechs, and patients agree—drug price controls will harm future cures. BIO’s Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath spoke to stakeholders across the pharmaceutical ecosystem to uncover why—listen at Apple, Google, or Spotify.
More Health Care News:
Biopharma Dive: FDA panel endorses second shot for adults who received J&J vaccine
“In a 19-0 vote, the panel supported authorization of a second J&J shot for adults 18 and over, clearing the way for a likely positive FDA decision. Under the panel's guidance, people who received one dose of J&J's shot would be eligible for a second at least two months after their initial vaccination.”
