Just how profitable is the pharmaceutical industry?
A study from the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University is the first to critically examine the profitability of the companies that are responsible for the development, manufacturing, marketing and sale of most medicines.
It indicates that the profits gained by drug developers outpaced those of other publicly-traded companies by a wide margin over an 18-year period.
Merck & Co., long a standard bearer for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, earned $10 billion in profits last year. Pfizer, its larger peer, booked even more: $16 billion.
Some of the most valuable innovations known to medicine have come from the pharmaceutical industry.
Yet, the cost of those innovations places new drugs out of reach for many patients and significantly burdens others.
Are pharmaceutical companies earning too much? Deciding whether pharmaceutical companies earn too much money is complicated.
Across the top ranks…
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Christian Devotions 