NIH research contributed to all new FDA-approved drugs from 2010 to 2016, report says

NIH-funded research was associated with all 210 new drugs approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2016, a contribution that totals over $100 billion, a new study claims. The paper by researchers at Bentley University found over 2 million publications in PubMed, NIH’s publication indexing service, related to the new molecular entities or their biological targets (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1715368115). Over 90% of that research was basic science related to the biological target of the drug. Previous estimates have suggested far lower contributions by NIH to new drug discovery. The authors say this is probably because publications are more likely to reflect basic research than patents or New Drug Applications. “Published research, taken as a whole, reflects the advancing forefront of knowledge from which new drugs are discovered and developed,” the paper says.