NIH and the US Veterans Administration funded the research leading to the main compound in both Sovaldi and Harvoni–from early-stage science even into later-stage clinical trials. Private investors spent no more (and perhaps much less) than $300 million in R&D outlays for Sovaldi and Harvoni over the course of a decade.53 If we consider that in the first six months of 2015 the two drugs combined produced around $9.4 billion in sales (and $45 billion in the first three years since launch from 2014 to 2016) it is clear that their price bears no relation to R&D costs.54
