Fact of the Week: The Biopharma Industry Invested $276 Billion in R&D in 2021, Significantly More Than Previously Estimated

Source: Amitabh Chardra, et al., “Comprehensive Measurement of Biopharmaceutical R&D Investment,” Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 23, (2024): 652-653.

Commentary: According to a report from Chandra et al., the biopharmaceutical industry is investing far more in research and development (R&D) than other estimates suggest. Typically, studies measure the amount of R&D conducted by the biopharma industry using survey data gathered from commercial, publicly listed companies. However, these companies only make up a portion of the total companies in the large and interconnected biopharma ecosystem. By only collecting data from these companies, they exclude R&D investment by commercial-stage privately held companies, development-stage publicly listed companies, and development-stage privately held companies. By including these firms in their analysis, the researchers estimate that R&D investment in the biopharma industries in 2021 was $276 billion, 170 percent greater than other commonly cited estimates. This estimate puts biopharma R&D at 27 percent, higher than the software and semiconductor industries.