Diffusion of pharmaceuticals: cross-country evidence of anti-TNF drugs

Abstract

This paper studies the di¤usion of biopharmaceuticals across European countries, focusing on anti-TNF drugs, which are used to treat autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatism, psoriasis). We use detailed sales information on the three brands Remicade, Enbrel and Humira for nine European countries covering the period from the …rst launch in 2000 until becoming blockbusters in 2009. Descriptive statistics reveal large variations across countries in per-capita consumption and price levels both overall and at brand level. We explore potential sources for the cross-country consumption di¤er-ences by estimating several multivariate regression models. Our results show that large parts of the cross-country variation are explained by time-invariant country-speci…c factors (e.g., disease prevalence, demographics, health care system). We also …nd that di¤erences in income (GDP per capita) and health spending (share of GDP) explain the cross-country variation in consumption, while relative price di¤erences seem to have limited impact. JEL Classi…cation: I11; L13; O33

Differential diffusion of pharmaceutical innovations in a mixed market middle - income economy

“…Their findings also showed that per -capita expenditures on health care had a positive effect on diffusion speed (particularly for developed countries), while higher prices led to decrease in diffusion speed. Similar study by Brekke et al [33] assessed the diffusion of anti -TNF drugs over nine European countries from the year of first launch in 2000 until 2009 showed that the cross-country variations can be explained by the time -invariant country specific factors (e.g., disease prevalence, demographics, health care system). They also observed consistent findings that the cross -country variations in consumption were attributed by the differences in income (GDP per capita) and health spending (share of GDP).…”

“…At the market / industry level, factors such as regulatory policies [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and market characteristics [25] have been studied whereas at individual level, prescriber's characteristics [26][27][28] and organisational -related factors [29] were assessed. Most studies investigated the diffusion of medicines within a specific country [30][31][32] but some studies have made international comparisons [16,25,33]. The following discussion provides a brief review of empirical studies assessing factors on regulatory and market characteristics associated with diffusion of medicines.…”

Biological and biosimilar therapies in inflammatory conditions: challenges for the Central and Eastern European countries

“…Central and Eastern European countries partly missed the first wave of the diffusion of biologicals, which was very dynamic in most of the high income countries [2]. CEE countries are late adopters of the biological drugs.After 2006-2007, due to the growing number of positive reimbursement decisions, access to biologicals gradually became better and better in CEE.…”