Using industry assertions of R&D spending, pharmaceutical related R&D spending by the private sector was less than 8 percent of global sales in 2010.
These are the data:
2010 Global R&D by all private companies: – $67.4 billion
Source: Page 2 of the 2011 PhRMA industry profile
http://report.nih.gov/investigators_and_trainees/acd_bwf/pdf/Phrma_Industry_Profile_2011.pdf
2010 Global sales – $856 billion
Source: IMS Health Market Prognosis, March 2011
http://www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/StaticFile/Top_Line_Data/Total_Market_2003-2010.pdf
R&D / Sales = 0.078738318
How much of the 7.9 percent invested in R&D is invested in the development of new products that are medically important? Given the small number of FDA priority NCE approvals, that number is significantly lower.