U.S. investment in R&D fell slightly this year, and is expected to start growing again next year, according to a new report out from the Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit group that looks at that sort of thing.
A story in this morning’s WSJ has more on the issue; Health Blog readers may be particularly interested in some numbers from the report on R&D spending at big U.S. drug companies.
Of course, company-by-company figures like these don’t tell the whole story, in part because of the effects of consolidation. For example, Pfizer’s R&D spending may climb next year because of the Wyeth acquisition, but continuing cuts could mean the company’s R&D spending is lower than this year’s combined R&D spending for Pfizer and Wyeth.
Nevertheless, a numbers dump can still be interesting. Here it is:
R&D Spending, in millions of dollars
| Company | Q1-Q3, ‘08 | Q1-Q3, ‘09 | Change |
| Pfizer | $5,642 | $5,032 | -10.8% |
| J&J | $5,469 | $4,773 | -12.7% |
| Merck | $3,419 | $3,874 | 13.3% |
| Eli Lilly | $2,782 | $3,110 | 11.8% |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | $2,442 | $2,590 | 6.1 |
Photo: Associated Press