US Pharma R&D spend grew 3% in 2008

New statistics reveal that R&D investment in new medicines by the US biopharmaceutical industry was $65.2 billion in 2008, an increase of 3%  from 2007, according to a combined analysis conducted by Burrill & Co, a  San Francisco-based global life sciences firm, and the Washington  DC-based trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of  America (PhRMA).

PhRMA-member companies alone spent an estimated $50.3 billion on  pharmaceutical R&D last year - up 5% from the 2007 total of $47.9  billion in 2007, according to an association survey. The Burrill  analysis shows that non-PhRMA drug research companies in the USA  invested an estimated $14.9 billion on R&D last year, compared with  $15.3 billion in 2007.

"This is the fifth year that we have joined with PhRMA to report  industry-wide biopharmaceutical research and development expenditures,"  noted Steven Burrill, chief executive of the eponymously-named firm.  "The growth in R&D investment shows the industry's commitment to support  important advances in better medicines and new treatments for patients  made by research scientists and physicians," he added.