{"id":16340,"date":"2026-10-07T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saludporderecho.org\/?p=16340"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:20:44","slug":"public-funding-prices-medicines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saludporderecho.org\/en\/public-funding-prices-medicines\/","title":{"rendered":"Public funding for new medicines should also be taken into account when prices are set"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public funding supports basic research, clinical trials, regulatory assessment and post-market evidence generation for many medicines. This investment, which is present throughout the development process, remains largely invisible in price negotiations<\/strong> and decisions on access conditions.<\/p>\n

We discussed this lack of transparency in Who Pays, Who Benefits \u2014 and Who Knows?<\/strong>, a webinar we organised a few months ago. The event featured Claudia Wild, from the Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment and Transparency International Healthcare; Roz Scourse, from M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res; and Megan Whiteman, from Public Citizen. Jaime Manzano and Adri\u00e1n Alonso, from our organisation, moderated the discussion.<\/p>\n

The document we are now publishing brings together the webinar\u2019s main conclusions. One is that public support is present throughout almost the entire drug development lifecycle. The European HI-PRIX project has identified public funding across eight different phases, from early research to clinical trials, regulatory approval and post-market evidence generation. The literature reviewed by the project found that public-sector institutions contributed to approximately 42%-50% of all biologics and more than 90% of drug target research<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This investment often remains hidden when companies justify high prices by referring to research and development costs. Available estimates of the cost of developing a new medicine range from US$43.4 million to US$4.2 billion. This nearly 100-fold difference makes it impossible to know how much was actually invested<\/strong> and what share was covered by the public sector.<\/p>\n