Biotech R&D spending grew by more than 3x the rate of total industry spend

Biotech spending on research and development grew by more than three times the rate of the drug industry as a whole during the last two decades, during which time the number of new biotech products that won marketing approval in the USA nearly quadrupled, according to a new report from the USA-based Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

Global R&D spending by the largest publicly-traded biotech companies grew 13.7% annually, from $4.8 billion in 2001 to $55.0 billion in 2020, according to the report. And, by the end of 2020, 478 biotech products had won marketing approval in the USA, up from 127 approvals at the end of 2001, posting a 7.2% annual growth rate.

“While it’s well understood that the biotech industry has thrived during the past 20 years, our research quantifies the full magnitude and drivers of that explosive growth and provides an online data-rich tool for analyzing and forecasting where the biotech industry is headed,” said Ronald Evens, adjunct research professor at Tufts CSDD, who conducted the analysis.