U.S. manufacturing labor productivity (measured in output per hour of labor) increased 43 percent between 2001 and 2011. However, over the next ten years, productivity fell by 2.8 percent.

Fact of the Week: US Manufacturing Labor Productivity Fell by 2.8 Percent Between 2011 and 2021

This growth comes with real-world improvements to patient outcomes. The decade from 2010 through 2019 saw a 60 percent increase in new drug approvals compared to the previous decade.

Fact of the Week: The Pharmaceutical Industry Invested $83 Billion on R&D in 2019, a Tenfold Increase Since the 1980s

Despite popular rhetoric around the supposedly exorbitant prices of prescription drugs, the price of pharmaceutical products has increased far slower than the rate of inflation.

Fact of the Week: The Price of Drugs Has Increased 40 Percent Less Than the Average US Product

When factoring in the high value of positive externalities created by new drugs, consumer prices become a small price to pay for the wealth of private and public benefits that biopharmaceutical innovations create.

Fact of the Week: Biopharma Innovations Shrank the Population Unable to Work or Go to School by 4.5 Percent Over 15 Years

Manufacturing’s smaller role in the U.S. economy is hotly debated, with many blaming automation for its demise. But analysis of a recently expanded BEA and BLS dataset demonstrates both how stark manufacturing’s decline has been and that fears of automation are largely misplaced.

Fact of the Week: Manufacturing Contributed 14 Percent of US Economic Growth From 1987 to 2016, But is Now Reducing Growth by 1 Percent

Researchers estimate that R&D investment in the biopharma industries in 2021 was $276 billion, 170 percent greater than other commonly cited estimates.

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

Debates over high-priced prescription drugs tend to focus on whether the government should attempt to constrict the pharmaceutical industry, whether by reducing patent protections or by mandating lower prices. What these conversations miss, though, is that drug prices could also fall through the expansion of the pharmaceutical industry, rather than its restriction.

Fact of the Week: In 2017, FDA Approved 46 New Drugs and Over 1,000 Generic Drugs

There are nearly 6,000 firms with revenues exceeding $1 billion, representing nearly two-thirds of global corporate earnings. The 10 percent of those firms with the largest profits produce 80 percent of the group’s total earnings. A new study has found that firms in the top 1 percent outperform the median firm across the board, with 20 times more revenue, 12 times more employees, 2.9 times more R&D intensity, 23 percent more labor productivity, and 14 percent more fixed capital productivity.

Fact of the Week: The Least Profitable Firms Among the World’s Largest Companies Have Higher Labor Productivity and Lower Fixed Capital Productivity than the Most Profitable Firms

Fact of the Week: The Least Profitable Firms Among the World's Largest Companies Have Higher Labor Productivity and Lower Fixed Capital Productivity than the Most Profitable Firms

Debates over drug pricing often consider the impacts on health and innovation, but rarely examine the costs those drugs offset. According to new research examining drug releases for 67 diseases across 15 countries in the three decades from 1982 to 2015, these offsets are dramatic.

Fact of the Week: Productivity in the Pharmaceutical and Medicine Industry Fell by 2.4 Percent Annually Between 2014 and 2024

Related

Fact of the Week: US Manufacturing Labor Productivity Fell by 2.8 Percent Between 2011 and 2021

Fact of the Week: The Pharmaceutical Industry Invested $83 Billion on R&D in 2019, a Tenfold Increase Since the 1980s

Fact of the Week: The Price of Drugs Has Increased 40 Percent Less Than the Average US Product