It costs $5bn to develop a new drug, but drug resistance in developing countries means they are badly needed. Where will the money come from? Join our chat, Thursday 27 March
It takes a long time and many different processes to produce a drug. After being discovered it needs to be clinically tested, approved by regulatory agencies as being both effective and safe and then distributed to wherever it is needed.
Predictably, most new drugs that are tested do not get through to the distribution stage. According to an article in Forbes in 2013, 95% of experimental drugs fail and subsequently the cost of developing a new drug has reached $5bn. "This is crazy," says drug development expert Susan Desmond-Hellmann in the article. "For sure it's not sustainable ... any businessperson would look at this and say, 'You can't make a business off this. This is not a good investment.'"
One of the biggest concerns surrounding rising costs and dwindling investments in drug development is the impact it will have on 'diseases of poverty', mainly found in developing countries. While providing treatments for these diseases - such as tuberculosis, malaria and African sleeping sickness - can save lives and reduce poverty, they cannot compete for investments from corporates hoping for financial returns. Drug development for diseases of poverty is mainly supported by
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