Pharmaceutical companies like to say it takes well over $1 billion to bring a new drug to market: the costs of the basic science, developing a new compound, figuring out the right dose, and the FDA process of human testing for safety and efficacy. (Many companies also include opportunity costs—the profits that could have been made by investing the money elsewhere—in the estimate.) In some cases, that is likely true. But academic studies have placed the actual average scientific research and development costs for a new drug at between $43.4 million and $125 million. It is unclear how much of
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