Three in five British people believe the average cost of bringing a new medicine to market is less than £10m, when it is often 100 times that figure. Meanwhile, more than one in three people thought that the National Health Service spends over 20% of its budge on medicines, when in fact it is less than 10%. Those are the results of a survey of 1,000 compiled for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the body representing big pharmaceutical businesses in the UK.
Stephen Whitehead, the CEO of the ABPI, found it concerning that people did not understand the cost or value of the important medicines that they take, which have treated many conditions and made many others more manageable. He said: “As well providing real value, we also contribute billions annually to the UK economy and provide 67,000 jobs. In the coming months, we will be doing much to educate people and patients of the facts about medicines – the huge benefits, the low prices and the high cost of development.”