They do invest in research and each year, we do an analysis, since they are required to disclose how much money they have invested in their research efforts.
When Parliament created the PMPRB in 1987, it called on the pharmaceutical industry to invest 10% of its gross revenues in research. The industry may have achieved, or surpassed, the 10% target once or twice over the past twenty years. Last year—Barbara is feeding the information to me—pharmaceutical companies spent 8.5% of their gross revenues on research initiatives.
This figure excludes advertising geared to doctors and the like. It represents money that is invested in primary research and in clinical trials.