In the past 60 years, innovative medicines and vaccines have helped dramatically to improve public health and economic wellbeing of societies and individuals in many countries worldwide. As a result of such biomedical advances and increasing economic prosperity, diseases that were prevalent 100 years ago, such as small pox and polio, have all but disappeared. The global burden of illness looks very different today, and the World Health Organization projects that it will be different again in just 20 years.
Drug discovery is a long, difficult, expensive and high-risk undertaking. It begins with basic research, which expands the fundamental understanding of disease pathways and identifies and characterizes new drug candidates. The next step is developmental research, where researchers test the safety and efficacy of a new drug candidate and determine its metabolism and interaction with the body and with other drugs. As reported by the Tufts Center for Drug Development1, it costs more than $1 billion to bring one medicine from discovery in a laboratory to the patient. For every one medicine that reaches the market, between 4,000 and 10,000 compounds must be screened.2 The research-based pharmaceutical industry assumes the high risk of failure in drug development and plays a critical role in the research and development of new medicines and vaccines worldwide3. Profitability and a strong financial base are essential to investment and to the allocation of resources necessary to develop and produce future medicines that can meet evolving health needs.
The content on this page was last modified on October 24, 2008.
1 Merck has provided support since 1988 to the Tufts Center for Drug Development for general academic research purposes.
2 DiMasi J, Grabowski H. The Cost of Pharmaceutical R&D: Is Biotech Different? Managerial and Dec Econ 2007; 28:469-479.
3 Zycher B, DiMasi J, Milne C. The Truth About Drug Innovation: Thirty-Five Summary Case Histories on Private Sector Contributions to Pharmaceutical Science. Manhattan Institute Center for Medical Progress, 2008.
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