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February 01, 2005
The Public Financing of Pharmaceuticals. An economic approach
Editor: Jaume Puig-Junoy
ISBN: 1 84542 088 8
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Price: £65.00 (web price £58.50)
February 2005, 272 pp, Hardback
This book provides a complete approach to the economics of financing medicines and policy implications for the efficiency and equity of health systems. In all health systems with majority public financing, pharmaceutical reimbursement is one of the key factors in policies of change and transformation of health services in order to face the future with guarantees of financial sustainability.
The initial chapters seek to answer questions about the efficiency with which the public sector intervenes in the pharmaceutical industry: Is the present system of drug patents efficient and fair? What would be the best way to control drug prices? Is it possible to encourage competition in this market for the patients’ benefit? The remainder of the book provides evidence on the impact of instruments and policies aimed at rationalising and controlling pharmaceutical expenditure: What can we expect from the application of reference pricing systems? When, how and where should the user be made to share the cost of medicines? What economic and non-economic incentives should be applied to drug prescription?
Jaume Puig-Junoy has performed an invaluable task in creating a cohesive, and analytically rigorous book of specially commissioned chapters on this pertinent topic.
The Public Financing of Pharmaceuticals will appeal to academics and researchers involved in public finance, health policy, health economics, industrial organisation and the pharmaceutical markets in Europe and in the US, where there is increasing public interest in drug coverage. The book is also intended for a wide variety of professionals in the health industries, and policymakers.
Contents
Introduction Public Pharmaceutical Expenditure
- Incentives for Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Market
- Price Regulation Systems in the Pharmaceutical Market
- Regulation and Competition in Pharmaceutical Markets
- Mechanisms to Encourage Price Competition in the Pharmaceutical Market and their Effects on Efficiency and Welfare
- Reference Pricing as a Pharmaceutical Reimbursement Mechanism
- Insurance in Public Financing of Pharmaceuticals
- Economic Evaluation and Pharmaceutical Policy
- Prescriber Incentives
- Some Economic Considerations Regarding Pharmaceutical Expenditure in Spain and its Financing
- Review of Economic Studies of the Pharmaceutical Industry and Pharmaceuticals Published Over the Last 20 Years by Spanish Economists
Appendix
Contributors include: X. Badía Llach, J.R. Borrell Arqué, M. Cabañas Sáenz, L. Cabiedes Miragaya, A. Costas Comesaña, J. Darbà Coll, B. González López-Valcárcel, R. González Pérez, P. Ibern Regàs, F. Lobo, G. López-Casasnovas, R. Nonell Torres, V. Ortún Rubio, J.L. Pinto Prades, J. Puig-Junoy, J. Rovira Forns.
