Incentives for Research, Development, and Innovation in Pharmaceuticals (Series economia de la salud y gestion sanitaria)

Incentives for innovation are particularly relevant in the pharmaceutical industry where not all social needs provide equally profitable opportunities and where most OECD countries try to implement diffe - rent measures that promote research in these less profitable areas. The lack of incentives for innovation is especially dramatic when we take into account diseases affecting mostly low-income countries, and also diseases affecting small groups of patients. How can incentives be provided to deal with these less profitable acti - vities when no clear markets exist for the innovations being introduced? Some of the contributions of this book go into discussing alternative mechanisms to substitute for these inexistent markets, and situations where traditional instruments such as public procurement or direct subsidies have proven totally insufficient. Also, this book discusses the clear mismatch between the size of the markets being targeted and the incentives being provided. Incentives for innovation are particularly relevant in the pharmaceutical industry where not all social needs provide equally profitable opportunities and where most OECD countries try to implement different measures that promote research in these less profitable areas. This book describes how incentives can be provided to deal with less profitable activities when no clear markets exist for the innovations. The book discusses alternative mechanisms to substitute for inexistent markets, situations where traditional instruments have proven totally insufficient, and the clear mismatch between the size of the markets being targeted and the incentives being provided. Patents become an ineffective way to incentivise R&D when the appropriability is low; this book provides alternative ideas such as allowing for a period of data exclusivity to firms that develop new drugs. Front Matter....Pages I-IX Introduction....Pages 1-4 Incentives to innovate: A survey....Pages 5-14 Incentives for innovation: Neglected diseases....Pages 15-38 When patents are not enough: Supplementary incentives for pharmaceutical innovation....Pages 39-47 The Contribution of the United States, Europe and Japan in Discovering New Drugs: 1982–2003....Pages 49-68 The use of pay-for-performance for drugs: Can it improve incentives for innovation?....Pages 69-80 Drug Price Regulation: Recent Trends and Downstream Neglected Issues....Pages 81-96