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Governments have lots of money. Even if a government research department was 20% less effective than an equivalent private sector research department (which I
by crdoconnor 10y ago
Governments have lots of money.
Even if a government research department was 20% less effective than an equivalent private sector research department (which I strongly doubt; they're probably equivalent), it would still be more cost effective. Pharma marketing budgets are titanic and that's an epic waste of money.
- vonmoltke 10y agoI decided to look into this. I pulled the financials for Pfizer, Merck, and AstraZeneca. Their research and development (R&D) spending, while significantly less than their Selling, General, and Administrative (SGA) spending, it is still comparable. Considering SGA includes a lot more than just advertising I would wager that their actual ad budgets (at least for Merck and AstraZeneca) are less than their R&D budgets. Pfizer: $7,690 million R&D, $14,809 million SGA Merck: $6,704 million R&D, $10,313 million SGA AstraZeneca: $5,997 million R&D, $9,951 million SGA