In this paper we use published information to provide analyze the economic value of Direct to Consumer (DTC) advertising. We use information on: the effect of DTC in generating patient visits; the effect of patient visits and mentions of a drug in generating prescriptions; and the effect of...

This paper studies price determination in pharmaceutical markets using data for 25 countries, six years and a comprehensive list of products from the MIDAS IMS database. We show that market power and the quality of the product has a significantly positive impact of prices. The nationality of the...

Spanish Abstract: El problema del acceso a los medicamentos no obedece siempre al rol cuestionable de la industria farmacéutica, como sí en gran medida a los Estados, responsables inmediatos por el abandono de millones de pacientes en los países bajo el umbral de pobreza y desarrollo. Para...

In drug R&D, there are big challenges today. Big pharma is struggling with a drying up of the pipeline and neglected diseases do not attract much drug development effort. India faces a different challenge not often discussed: it has not yet brought out a single widely used new drug. This is...

Spanish Abstract: El presente artículo tiene como objetivo destacar la problemática de las prácticas de extensión o prolongación de los derechos de exclusividad sobre los medicamentos, llevadas a cabo por la industria farmacéutica, una vez el término de protección vía patente está por...

In any assessment of the R&D capabilities of Indian companies, their patent holdings would have to be examined. Here we identify the number of patents assigned by four foreign governments to Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies up to December 31, 2009. It is known that the United...

This analysis looks at the identity of different Indian assignees of 2300 US patents upto 30 June 2009. These patents are classified according to the nature of the assignee, that is companies, government departments and national research laboratories, universities, other non-profit organizations...

In order to help reduce drug prices, governments in countries such as India are devising policies to help local biotech companies. These companies are also initiating original drug discovery programmes. How much should these governments and companies be concerned about patents? We have...

This paper studies oligopolistic competition in off-patent pharmaceutical markets using a vertical product differentiation model. This model can explain the observation that countries with stronger regulations have smaller generic market shares. It can also explain the differences in observed...

Forty percent of spiraling US drug costs are based on a mere two percent of all drugs –biologic drugs (biologics) made from living cells that are administered by injection or infusion. These costs will continue to balloon as new biologics are approved; the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug is...