14 December 2016 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released a new report to the U.S. congress entitled: "Prescription Drugs: Innovation, Spending and Patient Access."

The report notes:

• Between 2006 and 2015, the FDA approved an average of 29 novel drugs a year, with 45 approvals in 2015 alone
  
• Published estimates of the cost of new drug development range from $1.2 billion to $2.6 billion and are highly sensitive to assumptions about pre-clinical and clinical development time, cost of capital, the likelihood of reaching approval following the start of clinical testing, and costs of preclinical development and clinical trials conducted among humans
  
• Published estimates of the cost of new drug development are also highly sensitive to the incorporation of recent increases in orphan drug approvals, which tend to have smaller trial sizes, higher success rates, and tax advantages for the sponsor
  

Read HHS report to US Congress