Since 2000, biopharmaceutical companies have brought more than 500 new medicines to patients in the U.S. As a result, we have successfully improved the quality and length of life for Americans confronting the most costly and challenging diseases (cancer, diabetes, etc.).
Yet, spending on retail prescription medicines accounts for the same percentage of health care spending today as in 1960 - just 10 percent. Government actuaries project that spending on prescription medicines will continue to grow at a rate that is consistent with overall health care spending through the next decade while the U.S. will spend $13.5 trillion on hospital care.
That is three times more than the spending on medicines.