Chit Ayman, Chit Ahmad, Papadimitropoulos Manny, Krahn Murray, Parker Jayson, Grootendorst Paul
Sanofi Pasteur, Toronto, Ontario, Canada University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Canada.
Inquiry. 2015 May 1;52. doi: 10.1177/0046958015584641. Print 2015.
The opportunity cost of the capital invested in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) to bring a new drug to market makes up as much as half the total cost. However, the literature on the cost of pharmaceutical R&D is mixed on how, exactly, one should calculate this "hidden" cost. Some authors attempt to adopt models from the field of finance, whereas other prominent authors dismiss this practice as biased, arguing that it artificially inflates the R&D cost to justify higher prices for pharmaceuticals. In this article, we examine the arguments made by both sides of the debate and then explain the cost of capital concept and describe in detail how this value is calculated. Given the significant contribution of the cost of capital to the overall cost of new drug R&D, a clear understanding of the concept is critical for policy makers, investors, and those involved directly in the R&D.
为将一种新药推向市场而投入到制药研发（R&D）中的资本的机会成本，占到了总成本的一半之多。然而，关于制药研发成本的文献，在究竟应如何计算这一“隐性”成本的问题上，观点不一。一些作者试图采用金融领域的模型，而其他一些著名作者则认为这种做法有失偏颇，他们指出这会人为抬高研发成本，从而为药品的更高价格提供理由。在本文中，我们审视了这场辩论双方的观点，接着解释了资本成本的概念，并详细描述了该数值是如何计算的。鉴于资本成本对新药研发总成本的重大贡献，对这一概念的清晰理解对于政策制定者、投资者以及直接参与研发的人员而言至关重要。
