{"entity":{"id":"idea-reg-rd-cost-disclosure-condition","kind":"idea","name":"Disclose R&D and manufacturing costs of publicly funded cancer drugs to get coverage","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Prices and value): Prasad, De Jesús & Mailankody, The high price of anticancer drugs: origins, implications, barriers, solutions (Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2017)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.31"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["nci","cruk"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-drug-pricing","b-incentive-misalignment"],"keyPapers":["paper-prasad-nat-rev-clin-oncol"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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.","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","cost":"small","horizonYears":4},"route":"/ideas/idea-reg-rd-cost-disclosure-condition/","neighbours":{"institution":[{"id":"cruk","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK","route":"/institutions/cruk/"},{"id":"nci","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Institute (NIH)","route":"/institutions/nci/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-incentive-misalignment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains","route":"/bottlenecks/b-incentive-misalignment/"},{"id":"b-drug-pricing","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prices and value","route":"/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-prasad-nat-rev-clin-oncol","kind":"paper","name":"The high price of anticancer drugs: origins, implications, barriers, solutions","route":"/key-papers/paper-prasad-nat-rev-clin-oncol/"}]}}