Analyses like that are misleading because most of the industry's revenues and profits are concentrated with a few firms. The vast majority of biotech and pharma

Analyses like that are misleading because most of the industry's revenues and profits are concentrated with a few firms. The vast majority of biotech and pharma companies are not profitable and never aim to become profitable -- rather they just do r&d and then sell drugs to big pharma once some of the clinical risk is taken out In 2018 only like 12% of new FDA approved drugs were developed by big pharma. 63% were developed by small companies. A negligible amount were discovered by universities alone Pharma acquired these drugs from startups through M&A which doesn't show up in profit and loss statements. It shows up on the balance sheet That $84B r&d figure seems very low. The top 15 pharma companies spend something like $75B a year in r&d. VC backed startups spend like $10-15B. Then all the firms in between account for the majority of spending. Don't remember the source but I think total global pharma r&d is like $200B