On the Decline

The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog has put together a chart of R&D spending by US drug companies — a related article in the paper said that R&D fell in 2009 by 3.8 percent to $382.6 billion. Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson's spending dropped by 10.8 and 12.7 percent, respectively while the other companies showed gains in spending. For 2010, R&D funding is expected to rise, but the Health Blog warns that the numbers don't give the full picture. "For example, Pfizer's R&D spending may climb next year because of the Wyeth acquisition, but continuing cuts could mean the company's R&D spending is lower than this year's combined R&D spending for Pfizer and Wyeth," the blog says.