Drug Firm Critics Cite Taxpayer Role in Research
More than half the money needed to create top-selling prescription drugs came from U.S. taxpayers and not industry investment, according to a federal report released Monday by critics of the drug companies.
Bestsellers such as the ulcer-curing Zantac and Zovirax, which treats herpes simplex, were developed and tested chiefly through grants from the National Institutes of Health, the report said.
Out of 131 studies, clinical trials and other tests on five bestsellers from 1995, the NIH deemed only one industry study as key to a drug’s development for use and sale, the report said.
And taxpayers paid again at the counter, contend advocates who released the NIH document.
“The drug industry is stealing from us twice,” said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizens Congress Watch. “First it claims that it needs huge profits to develop new drugs, even while drug companies get hefty taxpayer subsidies. Second, the companies gouge taxpayers while spending millions from their profits to buy access to lawmakers and defeat pro-consumer prescription drug legislation.”
The drug industry responded that, besides the federal funding, manufacturers spend billions of dollars on testing drugs and bringing them to market. NIH officials said Monday that the report was meant only for internal use. Key contributions were based on researchers’ scientific judgment, not hard and fast criteria, spokeswoman Anne Thomas said.
The NIH document was designed to examine federal contributions to prescription drug research. The internal study, obtained by Public Citizens through the Freedom of Information Act, showed that taxpayer-funded scientists and foreign universities conducted 85% of the published research studies, tests and trials leading to the discovery and development of five top-selling drugs.
Zantac costs about $100 for 60 pills. Zovirax costs about $145 for 60 pills. The government also played key roles in developing the hypertension drug Capoten and its slight alteration Vasotec, which retail for about $135 for 60 pills, and the anti-depressant Prozac, which costs about $75 for 30 pills.
