Research and development (R&D) investment in the biopharmaceutical industry drives the discovery of new drugs to address unmet medical needs and improve patient outcomes. Conventional understanding of the magnitude, intensity and productivity of R&D investment in the biopharmaceutical ecosystem is predominantly based on survey data from large, publicly listed biopharmaceutical companies (see Related links). Such measures provide an incomplete picture of the funding landscape because they ignore R&D investments made by smaller public commercial companies, development-stage public companies that have no commercial products and private companies, all of which have become increasingly important to the drug development ecosystem. A comprehensive and transparent measure of R&D investment is important for policy-making that affects the R&D ecosystem.

A.C. serves on the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors and is paid as an Academic Affiliate of Analysis Group, a consulting firm that received research support from Janssen for this study. A.C. is also an advisor to, and holds stock in, SmithRx, Health Engine and Kytuus. A full list of disclosures is available at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/amitabh-chandra. J.D., M.D., H.M., S.S., and N.K. are employees of Analysis Group. U.N. and S.M. are employees of Janssen Scientific Affairs and hold stock in its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, which funded this study.