“In a 2023 paper in the journal JAMA Health Forum, Dr. Fred Ledley, a professor at Bentley University, found that NIH spent $1.4 billion on the science underlying every new first-in-class drug approved by the FDA from 2010 through 2019. One of those drugs is Keytruda, the world’s top-selling medicine, which accounts for roughly a third of Merck’s revenue. According to an analysis by Ledley, the NIH spent over $2.8 billion on basic research underlying Keytruda, which was approved by the FDA in 2014. The drug has since revolutionized cancer care, adding years to the lives of countless patients. Today, when Big Pharma companies launch a new medicine, the work rests on piles and piles of research done in academic labs. “You need to have that mature foundation of basic science,” says Ledley. “That basic science is not paid for by industry. That’s paid for by governments.”
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