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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Is the pharmaceutical industry oriented towards treating diseases instead of preventing them?

Esther Tsvayg, Gigafact Foundry
yes

The pharmaceutical industry in recent decades has been better incentivized to develop treatments rather than preventative drugs, reflecting the structure of public and private health-insurance payments and other market factors.

The vaccine market reflects these influences. Vaccine research, development, testing and manufacturing is expensive—but because vaccines are typically needed just once the potential revenue is much smaller than for therapeutic drugs. To overcome these factors and accelerate development of a vaccine against the coronavirus, the U.S. government has set aside up to $18 billion.

An Oxford-affiliated journal noted in 2002 that pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to develop drugs to treat more advanced cancers, not prevent them at early stages. Companies aren't sure how preventative treatments would be evaluated and approved, or how they would market them.

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