"In 2003, PhRMA member companies invested an estimated $33.2 billion on research to develop new treatments for diseases - an estimated 17.7 percent of domestic sales on R&D - a higher R&D to sales ratio than any other U.S. industry.
At this level of investment, PhRMA member companies spend more on R&D than the National Institutes of Health and the international pharmaceutical industry."
In 2000, direct to consumer drug advertising cost over 2.5 Billion, with 15.7 Billion spent in total on drug promotion. And these numbers are rising fast since 1996. I think we can fairly extrapolate that 2.5 Billion to 3 Billion, and the 15.7 Billion to 17 Billion to try to get close to 2003 numbers for comparisons sake.
So, the Pharmacy companies do spend more on research and development than advertising. About twice as much. Still, I don't feel much better about that, and the "trends" in increased prescriptions at higher costs is troubling.