IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/20532.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Generic Competition and the Incentives for Early-Stage Pharmaceutical Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Lee Branstetter
  • Chirantan Chatterjee
  • Matthew J. Higgins

Abstract

What impact has rising generic competition had on the nature and direction of pharmaceutical innovation? We find broad-based, strong evidence that pharmaceutical companies have diverted their new drug development efforts away from therapeutic markets already well-served by generic drugs. We also find that increasing generic competition induces firms to shift their R&D activity towards more biologic-based products and away from chemical-based products. We conclude by discussing potential implications of our results for long-run innovation policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee Branstetter & Chirantan Chatterjee & Matthew J. Higgins, 2014. "Generic Competition and the Incentives for Early-Stage Pharmaceutical Innovation," NBER Working Papers 20532, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20532
    Note: EH PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20532.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. DiMasi, Joseph A. & Hansen, Ronald W. & Grabowski, Henry G. & Lasagna, Louis, 1991. "Cost of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 107-142, July.
    3. Jeffrey Furman & Margaret K. Kyle & Alain Cockburn & Rebecca M. Henderson, 2005. "Public & Private Spillovers: Location and the Productivity of Pharmaceutical Research," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 79-80, pages 165-188.
    4. Abe Dunn, 2012. "Drug Innovations and Welfare Measures Computed from Market Demand: The Case of Anti-cholesterol Drugs," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 167-189, July.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Linn, 2004. "Market Size in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 1049-1090.
    6. Farasat A. S. Bokhari & Gary M. Fournier, 2013. "Entry in the ADHD drugs market: Welfare impact of generics and me-too's," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 339-392, June.
    7. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard R. Nelson & John P. Walsh, 2003. "Links and Impacts: The Influence of Public Research on Industrial R&D," Chapters, in: Aldo Geuna & Ammon J. Salter & W. Edward Steinmueller (ed.), Science and Innovation, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Hausman, Jerry & Hall, Bronwyn H & Griliches, Zvi, 1984. "Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(4), pages 909-938, July.
    9. Trusheim Mark R. & Aitken Murray L. & Berndt Ernst R., 2010. "Characterizing Markets for Biopharmaceutical Innovations: Do Biologics Differ from Small Molecules?," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-45, July.
    10. Frank Lichtenberg, 2000. "The Benefits and Costs of Newer Drugs: Evidence from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 404, CESifo.
    11. Marco Ceccagnoli & Stuart J.H. Graham & Matthew J. Higgins & Jeongsik Lee, 2010. "Productivity and the role of complementary assets in firms' demand for technology innovations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(3), pages 839-869, June.
    12. Paul Ellickson & Scott Stern & Manuel Trajtenberg, 2001. "Patient Welfare and Patient Compliance -- An Empirical Framework for Measuring the Benefits from Pharmaceutical Innovation," NBER Chapters, in: Medical Care Output and Productivity, pages 539-564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1999. "Distribution-free estimation of some nonlinear panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 77-97, May.
    14. Golec, Joseph & Hegde, Shantaram & Vernon, John A., 2010. "Pharmaceutical R&D Spending and Threats of Price Regulation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 239-264, February.
    15. Hausman, Jerry A. & Lo, Andrew W. & MacKinlay, A. Craig, 1992. "An ordered probit analysis of transaction stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 319-379, June.
    16. Eric Budish & Benjamin N. Roin & Heidi Williams, 2015. "Do Firms Underinvest in Long-Term Research? Evidence from Cancer Clinical Trials," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(7), pages 2044-2085, July.
    17. Arcidiacono, Peter & Ellickson, Paul B. & Landry, Peter & Ridley, David B., 2013. "Pharmaceutical followers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 538-553.
    18. Eric Budish & Benjamin Roin & Heidi Williams, 2013. "Do fixed patent terms distort innovation? Evidence from cancer clinical trials," Discussion Papers 13-001, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    19. Tat Chan & Jack A. Nickerson & Hideo Owan, 2007. "Strategic Management of R& D Pipelines with Cospecialized Investments and Technology Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 667-682, April.
    20. Hemphill, C. Scott & Sampat, Bhaven N., 2012. "Evergreening, patent challenges, and effective market life in pharmaceuticals," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 327-339.
    21. Ernst R. Berndt & Murray L. Aitken, 2010. "Brand Loyalty, Generic Entry and Price Competition in Pharmaceuticals in the Quarter Century After the 1984 Waxman-Hatch Legislation," NBER Working Papers 16431, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Henry G. Grabowski & Margaret Kyle, 2007. "Generic competition and market exclusivity periods in pharmaceuticals," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4-5), pages 491-502.
    23. James W. Hughes & Michael J. Moore & Edward A. Snyder, 2002. ""Napsterizing" Pharmaceuticals: Access, Innovation, and Consumer Welfare," NBER Working Papers 9229, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Panattoni, Laura E., 2011. "The effect of Paragraph IV decisions and generic entry before patent expiration on brand pharmaceutical firms," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 126-145, January.
    25. Cohen, Wesley M., 2010. "Fifty Years of Empirical Studies of Innovative Activity and Performance," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 129-213, Elsevier.
    26. Atanu Saha & Henry Grabowski & Howard Birnbaum & Paul Greenberg & Oded Bizan, 2006. "Generic Competition in the US Pharmaceutical Industry," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 15-38.
    27. Mark R. Trusheim & Murray L. Aitken & Ernst R. Berndt, 2010. "Characterizing Markets for Biopharmaceutical Innovations: Do Biologics Differ from Small Molecules?," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 13, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. C. Scott Hemphill & Bhaven N. Sampat, 2011. "When Do Generics Challenge Drug Patents?," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), pages 613-649, December.
    29. Michelle Gittelman & Bruce Kogut, 2003. "Does Good Science Lead to Valuable Knowledge? Biotechnology Firms and the Evolutionary Logic of Citation Patterns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 366-382, April.
    30. Jing-Yuan Chio & Laura Magazzini & Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni, 2012. "The Value of Failures in Pharmaceutical R&D," Working Papers 1/2012, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, revised Jan 2012.
    31. David Reiffen & Michael R. Ward, 2005. "Generic Drug Industry Dynamics," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 37-49, February.
    32. Mark Trusheim & Murray L. Aitken & Ernst R. Berndt, 2010. "Characterizing Markets for Biopharmaceutical Innovations: Do Biologics Differ from Small Molecules?," NBER Working Papers 16014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. DiMasi, Joseph A. & Hansen, Ronald W. & Grabowski, Henry G., 2003. "The price of innovation: new estimates of drug development costs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 151-185, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Billette de Villemeur, Etienne & Ruble, Richard & Versaevel, Bruno, 2019. "Dynamic competition and intellectual property rights in a model of product development," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 270-296.
    2. Banerjee, Tannista & Siebert, Ralph, 2017. "Dynamic impact of uncertainty on R&D cooperation formation and research performance: Evidence from the bio-pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1255-1271.
    3. Ding, Yucheng & Zhao, Xin, 2019. "Pay-for-delay patent settlement, generic entry and welfare," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Henry Grabowski & Carlos Brain & Anna Taub & Rahul Guha, 2017. "Pharmaceutical Patent Challenges: Company Strategies and Litigation Outcomes," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 33-59, Winter.
    5. Thierry Nianogo & Albert Okunade & Demba Fofana & Weiwei Chen, 2016. "Determinants of US Prescription Drug Utilization using County Level Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 606-619, May.
    6. Stacy Sneeringer & Matt Clancy, 2020. "Incentivizing New Veterinary Pharmaceutical Products to Combat Antibiotic Resistance," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 653-673, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Branstetter, Lee & Chatterjee, Chirantan & Higgins, Matthew J., 2022. "Generic competition and the incentives for early-stage pharmaceutical innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    2. Lee Branstetter & Chirantan Chatterjee & Matthew J. Higgins, 2016. "Regulation and welfare: evidence from paragraph IV generic entry in the pharmaceutical industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(4), pages 857-890, November.
    3. Ernst R. Berndt & Joseph P. Newhouse, 2010. "Pricing and Reimbursement in U.S. Pharmaceutical Markets," NBER Working Papers 16297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eric Helland & Seth A. Seabury, 2016. "Are Settlements in Patent Litigation Collusive? Evidence from Paragraph IV Challenges," NBER Working Papers 22194, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Matthew J. Higgins & Mathias J. Kronlund & Ji Min Park & Joshua Pollet, 2020. "The Role of Assets In Place: Loss of Market Exclusivity and Investment," NBER Working Papers 27588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Berndt Ernst R. & McGuire Thomas & Newhouse Joseph P., 2011. "A Primer on the Economics of Prescription Pharmaceutical Pricing in Health Insurance Markets," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 1-30, November.
    7. Yin, Nina, 2023. "Pharmaceuticals, incremental innovation and market exclusivity," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Murray L. Aitken & Ernst R. Berndt & Barry Bosworth & Iain M. Cockburn & Richard Frank & Michael Kleinrock & Bradley T. Shapiro, 2013. "The Regulation of Prescription Drug Competition and Market Responses: Patterns in Prices and Sales following Loss of Exclusivity," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Modeling Health Care Costs, pages 243-271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Hu, Mei-Ying & Lu, You-Xun & Lai, Ching-chong, 2023. "Patent term extensions and commercialization lags in the pharmaceutical industry: A growth-theoretic analysis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Eric Budish & Benjamin Roin & Heidi Williams, 2013. "Do fixed patent terms distort innovation? Evidence from cancer clinical trials," Discussion Papers 13-001, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    11. Fabian Gaessler & Stefan Wagner, 2022. "Patents, Data Exclusivity, and the Development of New Drugs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 571-586, May.
    12. Patricia M. Danzon & Eric L. Keuffel, 2014. "Regulation of the Pharmaceutical-Biotechnology Industry," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, pages 407-484, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mark Pauly & Kyle Myers, 2016. "A Ricardian-Demand Explanation for Changing Pharmaceutical R&D Productivity," NBER Working Papers 22720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Linn, 2004. "Market Size in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 1049-1090.
    15. Dosi, Giovanni & Palagi, Elisa & Roventini, Andrea & Russo, Emanuele, 2023. "Do patents really foster innovation in the pharmaceutical sector? Results from an evolutionary, agent-based model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 564-589.
    16. Sacks, Daniel W., 2018. "Why do HMOs spend less? Patient selection, physician price sensitivity, and prices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 146-161.
    17. Yin, Wesley, 2008. "Market incentives and pharmaceutical innovation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 1060-1077, July.
    18. Margaret K. Kyle, 2018. "Are Important Innovations Rewarded? Evidence from Pharmaceutical Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 53(1), pages 211-234, August.
    19. Henry Grabowski & Carlos Brain & Anna Taub & Rahul Guha, 2017. "Pharmaceutical Patent Challenges: Company Strategies and Litigation Outcomes," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 33-59, Winter.
    20. Hermosilla, Manuel & Wu, Yufei, 2018. "Market size and innovation: The intermediary role of technology licensing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 980-991.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology; Plastics
    • M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.