According to results from the latest Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA) annual membership survey, PhRMA member companies spent $65.5 billion on total R&D in 2016, a 9.9% rise. Domestically, companies increased spending 9.0% to $52.4 billion, while R&D spending abroad jumped 13.8% to $13.1 billion. As a percentage of sales, domestic R&D accounted for 24% for member companies, and represented 20% as a percentage of total sales.

For human-use pharmaceuticals, members’ domestic R&D expenditures totaled $52.2 billion in 2016, accounting for 80% of total R&D spending, while $12.9 billion, the remaining 20%, was spent on R&D abroad. Outside of human-use pharmaceuticals, R&D expenditures were for veterinary-use pharmaceuticals. By function, the majority of R&D spending was for Phase III R&D, which represented 28% of total R&D expenditures with $18.3 billion spent in 2016.

Geographically, the US was home to the highest R&D expenditures in 2016 by members, with companies spending $52.4 billion, accounting for 80% of total global pharmaceutical R&D. Other Western European countries, where members spent $5.2 billion in 2016, ranked second.  In the UK, PhRMA members spent of $2.3 billion.

Source: PhRMA