%0 Journal Article
%@ 0154-3229
%A Pammolli, Fabio
%A Magazzini, Laura
%A Orsenigo, Luigi
%D 2002
%F eprints:667
%J Revue d'economie industrielle
%N 1
%P 107-131
%T The intensity of competition after patent expiry in pharmaceuticals. A cross-country analysis
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/667/
%V 99
%X This paper shows that the relationships between the dynamics of drug priees, patent expiry, and competition by multisource  drugs vary significantly across countries. A clear distinction seems to emerge. On the one side, systems that rely on market  based competition (particularly the US) promote a clear distinction between firms that act as innovators and firms that act as  imitators after patent expiry. Original products enjoy premium prices under patent protection, and face fierce price competition  after patent expiry. On the contrary, systems that rely on administered prices (particularly France and Italy) nurture strategies of  pre-emptive brand proliferation and horizontal differentiation by imitative brand name products, well before patent expiry. Our  work confirms that that systems that rely on administered prices have tended to stifle price competition, to protect less efficient  companies, and to encourage strategies of incremental innovation and imitation.