By Anjetta McQueen

More than half the money needed to create top-selling prescription drugs came from U.S. taxpayers and not industry investment.

Best sellers like the ulcer-curing Zantac or Zovirax, which treats herpes simplex, were developed and tested chiefly through grants from the National Institutes of Health. Out of 131 studies, clinical trials and other tests on five best sellers from 1995, the NIH deemed only one industry study as key to a drug's development for use and sale.

And taxpayers paid again at the counter, contend advocates who released the NIH document. The drug industry is stealing from us twice.

• First it claims that it needs huge profits to develop new drugs, even while drug companies get hefty taxpayer subsidies.
• Second, the companies gouge taxpayers while spending millions from their profits to buy access to lawmakers and defeat pro-consumer prescription drug legislation.

The drug industry responded that, besides the federal funding, manufacturers spend billions of dollars on testing drugs and bringing them to market. Officials from the NIH said Monday that the report was only meant for internal use. Key contributions were based on researchers' scientific judgment, not hard and fast criteria.

The NIH document was designed to examine federal contributions to prescription drug research. The internal study, obtained by Public Citizen through the Freedom of Information Act, showed that taxpayer-funded scientists and foreign universities conducted 85 percent of the published research studies, tests and trials leading to the discovery and development of five top-selling drugs.

Zantac costs about $100 for 60 pills. Zovirax costs about $145 for 60 pills. The government also played key roles on developing the hypertension drugs Capoten and its slight alteration Vasotec, which retail for about $135 for 60 pills, and the antidepressant Prozac, which costs about $75 for 30 pills.

The NIH document supports its argument that prescription drugs could be more affordable to middle and low-income seniors. The advocates rejected contentions by some companies that the cost of developing new medicines is causing the escalation of prices. But industry officials countered that drug companies still spend significant amounts on getting a drug to market, even when breakthrough studies are achieved with government help.

Consumer groups have long blamed drug-makers' aggressive marketing for soaring drug prices. Public Citizen also said that drug makers had spent $262 million during the 1999-2000 election, which includes $177 million on lobbying, $65 million on issue ads and $20 million on campaign contributions.

The Washington Post July 23, 2001

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