Doctors Without Borders urges public and non-profit actors to publish clinical trial costs to improve access to medical products for all.
Doctors Without Borders presented the costs of TB PRACTECAL clinical trial that helped identify all-oral treatment regimen for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), totalled €34 million.
This is the first time the detailed costs of an individual clinical trial have ever been shared publicly, challenging the prevailing public and policy narrative that high prices are needed to recoup high research and development (R&D) costs.
The current estimates for full R&D costs for new drug development range from US$43.4 million (€40 million) to a staggering $4.2 billion (€3.9 billion), using varied methodologies.
Transparency of clinical trial costs is needed to inform pricing policies and innovative ways to fund biomedical R&D.
