Guidance for searching and finding public contributions to pharmaceutical R&D

Fabian D, Wild C
Record ID 32018014887
English
Authors' objectives: The narrative that high drug prices are justified by development costs of up to several billion dollars per approved medicines hides the extensive public investment underlying pharmaceutical innovation. Despite substantial public investments –including direct funding, clinical trial infrastructure and regulatory support– current pricing mechanisms fail to account for public contributions. This results in taxpayers "paying twice": first through research funding, then through premium drug prices. The absence of standardised reporting enables this warped understanding of innovation, where the pharmaceutical industry is portrayed as the sole inventor while public contributions remain invisible. This handbook presents the HI-PRIX framework for systematically identifying and documenting public contributions to pharmaceutical R&D across eight categories spanning from basic research to post-market evidence generation.
Authors' results and conclusions: Our analysis reveals that the public is not only part of the innovation ecosystem but its main driver.
Authors' recommendations: The European pharmaceutical directive's Article 57 represents a critical step toward transparency, but effective implementation requires standardised reporting frameworks, comprehensive tracking systems, and integration of public contribution data into pricing negotiations. Without such systematic transparency, breakthrough therapies will remain increasingly unaffordable despite their fundamental dependence on public investment, threatening healthcare sustainability across Europe and beyond.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: https://aihta.at/page/hi-prix-health-innovation-next-generation-payment-and-pricing-models/en
Year Published: 2025
URL for published report: https://eprints.aihta.at/1595/1/HTA%20Projektbericht_Nr.179.pdf
URL for additional information: https://eprints.aihta.at/1595/
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: Austria
MeSH Terms
  • Fees, Pharmaceutical
  • Economics, Pharmaceutical
  • Drug Costs
  • Public Expenditures
  • Research Support as Topic
  • Research
  • Drug Development
  • Drug Industry
Keywords
  • Research and development (R&D)
  • transparency
  • innovations
  • research funding
  • public funding
Contact
Organisation Name: Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment
Contact Address: Josefstaedter Strasse 39, A-1080 Vienna, Austria
Contact Name: office@aihta.at
Contact Email: office@aihta.at
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.