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"Counting the losers" is part of R&D. Many companies invest in R&D, having failures is normal. According to Investopia[0], pharma companies float around the top of R&D spending. They indicate the semiconductor industry gets away with charging customers with more R&D spending. (Note, Investopedia doesn't cite any sources, so take it with a grain of salt.)

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/060115/how-much-dru...

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GP here. Using throwaways for privacy.

Don't believe the hype. The total R&D cost of an entire industry has a tenuous connection to those for a single product or organization.

The lion's share of early stage R&D in pharmaceuticals happens in academia or start ups. The big players "acquire" the successful ones somewhere around phase II trials.

In the semiconductor industry, like pharma, failed startups go out of business and disappear. Intel would get laughed out of the room if they tried to claim the R&D costs of such failures as their own. Yet for some reason everyone buys this argument from the pharmaceutical companies.

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