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Drug approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dropped dramatically in 2016—down by 57 percent over the year before. While some of this decline was due to a record number of approvals in 2015, only 22 novel drugs were approved last year—fewer than in each of the previous five years. Striving to make returns on their investments—to gain FDA approval for a novel therapy averages around $2.6 billion and 10 years—pharmaceutical companies sometimes hike drug prices to offset low productivity. Prescription drugs are the fastest growing health-care expense, with costs increasing by 9 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the latest report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
In addition to translating to high medication prices for patients, the ...
