relation: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2981/
title: Access to Medicines and European Market Integration
creator: Pammolli, Fabio
creator: Rungi, Armando
subject: HB Economic Theory
subject: HD Industries. Land use. Labor
description: In this paper we document a process of price convergence in the European market for pharmaceuticals and relate it to access to innovative medicines in individual countries. The EU is a peculiar case study, where free circulation of goods exists, but pricing policies are designed and implemented by Member States. Thanks to a unique census database on product sales and launches  for fifteen EU countries, we detect a process of price convergence, both in nominal and in real  terms. Therefore, we find that a faster rate of price convergence and a lower income per capita are  associated with stronger delays in launches of new medicines. Moreover, country delays tend to  be higher for innovative and first in class chemical compounds. Our results suggest that inefficiencies arise from drugs regulation, when countries widely differ in income per capita, public finance  sustainability conditions, and regulatory frameworks. Policies of external reference pricing tend to  exacerbate welfare losses. A policy of differential pricing is suggested, in order to take into account  both therapeutic value and willingness to pay.
publisher: IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca
date: 2016-01
type: Working Paper
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: en
rights: cc_by_nc
identifier: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2981/1/WP_2016_1.pdf
identifier:   Pammolli, Fabio and Rungi, Armando  Access to Medicines and European Market Integration.  EIC working paper series  #1/2016    IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca    ISSN 2279-6894.    (Submitted)