The market size presented here is an estimate of the dollars spent by the pharmaceutical industry on research and development in 2009. This is a thorny and complex subject—what costs are included in R&D and how do pharmaceutical companies decide what to spend on developing new drugs and to modify old ones. For anyone interested in the subject beyond this quick snapshot, we recommend a report titled “Research and Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry,” published in 2006 by the Congressional Budget Office, and available online here.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2009
Market size: $45.8 billion
Source: “New Federal Research Center Will Help Develop Medicines,” The New York Times, January 23, 2011, page 1.
Original source: Industry estimate