HSG St. Gallen: Drug costs USD 6.16 billion on average. Are the days of new drugs costing less than USD 1 billion over? There were figures in the industry that spoke of USD 700-1,000 million as the cost of developing a new drug. A study by the University of St. Gallen covering the period 2001-2020 found that the cost of developing new drugs has risen dramatically. It was estimated that the cost of developing a new drug now stands at