The Economics of TB Drug Development

http://www.tballiance.org/downloads/publications/TBA_Economics_Report.pdf

Goozner mentions this report in his book as standing in opposition to the Tufts (by Joe Dimasi - director of economic analysis) study.

"Though Global Alliance's methodology was very similar to the Tufts study, their bottom line was very different. 'The total costs to discover and develop a new anti-TB drug is roughly estimated to range from $115 million to $240 million. However, it is generally accepted that discovery and development of a new drug to treat TB will require an international, collaborative effort that allows costs to be shared by multiple organizations, lowering ultimately the investment burden borne by a single agency or company,' the report said.

On closer inspection, the Global Alliance's numbers actually jibed with the Tufts studies. The industry-funded academics never factored out research on me-too drugs. They didn't take into account the cost of developing the enantiomer version of raceimate drugs whose only purpose is to extend the patent life of a medicine. They never considered the waste of resources when an industry research budget pays for clinical trials whose only purpose is to get doctors to prescribe their medicine instead of someone else's. In short, if the industry-funded academic economists at Tufts had factored out the half of industry research that is more properly categorized as corporate waste, their number would have been similar to that of Global Alliance," p. 246, "The $800 Million Pill"