>Zeke estimates the direct financial upside of a successful replication to be about 33B$/year. This is a 66000:1 ratio (33B/500K = 66000).
This is not directly relevant, because the money is being saved by other people and governments, who are not normally using their money very well. EAs’ money is much more valuable as it is used much more efficiently than Western people and governments usually do. NB: this is also the reason why EA should generally be considered funders of last resort.
If the study has a 0.5% (??? I have no idea) chance of leading to global approval and effective treatment then it’s 35k QALY in expectation per my estimate which means a point estimate of $14/QALY. iirc, that’s comparable to global poverty interventions but at a much lower robustness of evidence, some other top EA efforts with a similar degree of robustness will presumably have a much higher EV. Of course the other diseases you can work on may be much worse causes.
Also that $33B comes from a study on the impact of the disease. Just because you replicate well doesn’t mean the treatment truly works, and is approved globally, etc. Hence the 0.5% number being very low.
Hi Zeke, Thanks for the clarification and the estimate for Y. If I understand correctly:
(1) Minimum success probability for project viability is ~0.5% (Y=0.5%)
(2) Upside following success is 33B$*10 years = 330B$ (per your earlier estimate, this needs to be adjusted for many different reasons, both up and down, but these adjustments are beyond my capabilities).
(3) Cost is 500K$.
(4) Expected ROI is = (330B$ * 0.5%) / 500K$ = 3300.
So this means if you find a 100$ bill on the sidewalk and giving it away to someone else statistically gives them ~300K$, you will keep it, but if it statistically gives them 400K$ you will give it away. Is that right?
>Zeke estimates the direct financial upside of a successful replication to be about 33B$/year. This is a 66000:1 ratio (33B/500K = 66000).
This is not directly relevant, because the money is being saved by other people and governments, who are not normally using their money very well. EAs’ money is much more valuable as it is used much more efficiently than Western people and governments usually do. NB: this is also the reason why EA should generally be considered funders of last resort.
If the study has a 0.5% (??? I have no idea) chance of leading to global approval and effective treatment then it’s 35k QALY in expectation per my estimate which means a point estimate of $14/QALY. iirc, that’s comparable to global poverty interventions but at a much lower robustness of evidence, some other top EA efforts with a similar degree of robustness will presumably have a much higher EV. Of course the other diseases you can work on may be much worse causes.
Also that $33B comes from a study on the impact of the disease. Just because you replicate well doesn’t mean the treatment truly works, and is approved globally, etc. Hence the 0.5% number being very low.
Hi Zeke, Thanks for the clarification and the estimate for Y. If I understand correctly:
(1) Minimum success probability for project viability is ~0.5% (Y=0.5%)
(2) Upside following success is 33B$*10 years = 330B$ (per your earlier estimate, this needs to be adjusted for many different reasons, both up and down, but these adjustments are beyond my capabilities).
(3) Cost is 500K$.
(4) Expected ROI is = (330B$ * 0.5%) / 500K$ = 3300.
So this means if you find a 100$ bill on the sidewalk and giving it away to someone else statistically gives them ~300K$, you will keep it, but if it statistically gives them 400K$ you will give it away. Is that right?
Only if this project is assumed to be the best available use of funds. Other things may be better.