Perhaps you should discard figures from 1998 and catch up.You'll find that in some years since , advertising dollars doubled or tripled from the year before . There is an article out there, that details the cost of developing a new drug in the 60-70 million range, minus the government help like tax incentives and development grants. And the cost of free drugs to patients or free drugs to the needy is recovered , either through sales and volume.
And yes , although it doesn't affect me, I think Americans are getting ripped off
http://fusa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Prescription_Drugs_Drug_PricingThere is an article out there, that details the cost of developing a new drug in the 60-70 million range, minus the government help like tax incentives and development grants. I spent 27 years in pharmaceutical R&D. I guarantee that $60-70 million drugs are few and far between. $600-700 million is more like the average. And the cost of discovering the drug, where government labs or academia may play a part, is a minor part of the total cost. It is the 2 week, followed by 4 week, followed by one year, toxicology and pathology studies, each in 3 species, followed by lifetime (~3 year) carcinogenicity studies in rodents, and the phase I, II and III and sometimes IV clinical studies, none of which the government helps with that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars.