Americans pay more for healthcare than any other country, and yet are less healthy by many measures.  Moreover, healthcare costs continue to rise faster than general inflation. ¹ How can this be?  A major reason is the cost of clinical trials.  

Clinical trials are how we ensure that a drug, device or other medical product is safe and effective – obviously an important goal.  However, the average clinical trial today can easily cost $60,000,000 and last over seven years.²  A typical number of patients in a trial is at least 500, who are asked to answer, for example, 300 questions.³  That is $120,000 per patient, and $200,000 per question.  This means that only the largest companies can afford clinical trials.  That they will charge high prices for approved products.  That their clinical trials will be narrowly focused on products which will give them the greatest profitability.  That many medical products which could have a greater impact on more people, for less cost, will never see the light of day.

Lower Costs Drive Higher Quality and More Accessibility

The obvious solution is to reduce the cost required to establish the safety and efficacy of medical products.  Lower cost does not mean lower quality.  To the contrary, it often means better quality, more accessibility, and greater innovation.  Henry Ford’s Model Ts were lower cost, better, faster and available to far more people than the cars of his competitors.  Space X is committed to bringing down the cost per kilogram of a rocket launch from several thousands of dollars to $10.⁴  Why should medical products be more expensive and less accessible each year?

A RegenMed Circle can generate a clinically and statistically significant dataset involving 500 patients and 300 questions for only $6,700.⁵ That is $13 per patient, and $22 per question.  This is made possible by the technology and processes described in RegenMed’s patent, Method and System For Processing Large Amounts Of Real-World Evidence.

In many cases, there will of course be additional costs beyond clinical trials in obtaining final regulatory approval for a particular product.  But the ability to develop high-quality clinical datasets at a small fraction of current costs is a major step in bringing better, more useful and more accessible products to market.  

For more information on how RegenMed is supporting physicians and product manufacturers around the world deliver evidence-based care to more patients, at a lower cost, see our Latest page.

^{1 Peterson Foundation, How Does The U.S. Healthcare System Compare To Other Countries? August 2024.}

^{2 Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: New Estimates of R&D costs.}

^{3 Biopharmaceutical Research & Development: The Process Behind New Medicines.}

^{4 See www.spacex.com.}

^{5 Ten Circle Members at $35 per month, 500 Cases at $5 per Case, 12 months of longitudinal data.}