# Disclose R&D and manufacturing costs of publicly funded cancer drugs to get coverage

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-rd-cost-disclosure-condition/  
OnCo record `idea-reg-rd-cost-disclosure-condition` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Taxpayers fund much of the science behind new cancer drugs but never learn what they cost to develop. Disclosure should be a condition of public payment.

## Summary

The WHA 2019 transparency resolution called for disclosure of R&D costs and public funding, but implementation has been minimal. Many oncology drugs originate in publicly funded research (NIH, CRUK, national academic centres). The proposal is that public payers require, as a condition of coverage for any oncology drug that received public research funding or tax credits, audited disclosure of clinical development costs, manufacturing cost of goods and public contributions, published in a standard format and used as one input to price negotiations.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Disclosure requirements are followed by lower launch price growth for disclosed products relative to non-disclosed products in the same markets and by public support for reinvestment conditions on publicly funded discoveries.
- Rationale: Negotiation over price without knowledge of cost is negotiation in the dark; audited cost disclosure is routine for public procurement in defence and infrastructure, and public funding creates a legitimate claim to it.
- Proposed test: Adopt the requirement in one country for oncology products launched over three years; assess compliance, disclosed figures and price trajectories against other countries.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Prices and value): Prasad, De Jesús & Mailankody, The high price of anticancer drugs: origins, implications, barriers, solutions (Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2017): https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.31

## Connected records

- institutions: [Cancer Research UK](https://onco.cc/institutions/cruk/), [National Cancer Institute (NIH)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci/)
- bottlenecks: [Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-incentive-misalignment/), [Prices and value](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/)
- key papers: [The high price of anticancer drugs: origins, implications, barriers, solutions](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-prasad-nat-rev-clin-oncol/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/idea-reg-rd-cost-disclosure-condition.json