Who's Paying For This?

Comparative effectiveness research is necessary so physicians, researchers, and patients, know how different drugs stack up against each other, says Forbes' Avik Roy on The Apothecary blog. While the private sector spends billions of dollars a year on such research, Roy says that NIH also has a role to play in funding. For certain types of studies that pit two companies' drugs against each other, it is necessary to get another source of funding as either company would be reluctant to pay for a trial that might end up damaging its drug's reputation. So who should pay for this research? That's the big question, Roy adds.