It does not cost that much to do medical research

that we need to spend a huge percentage of our money on health care and medicine.
Merrill Goozner of The Huffington Post:
"The drug industry's mantra that it costs over $1 billion to develop a new drug gets trotted out every time someone in Congress wants to do something about the high price of drugs. With the incoming Democratic Congress pledging to force Medicare to negotiate drug prices like the Veterans Administration, the industry's counteroffensive has begun. I've already seen several full page image ads (as opposed to product-specific ads) in the nation's leading newspapers.

The industry's claim rests on a simple proposition. Without high prices, research and development will be cut back. For the millions of Americans suffering from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and (fill in the blank with your most feared disease here), the fervently hoped-for miracles that are just over the horizon will not emerge from industry's labs.

It's a compelling story, and total hogwash, as a new report from the Government Accountability Office released by leading Congressional Democrats today shows."