Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy [Hardcover]

Stuart O. Schweitzer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195105249 | ISBN-13: 978-0195105247 | Publication Date: January 15, 1997 | Edition: 1st

The pharmaceutical industry is praised as a leader in high technology innovation and the creator of products that increase both longevity and quality of life for people throughout the world. Yet the industry is also reviled for its marketing and pricing practices and even its research and development priorities. Its competitive nature is undergoing change today, with the entry of new firms and products increasing competition at the same time that mergers reduce it.
This book employs the tools of economic analysis to explore the conflicting priorities and aims of the pharmaceutical industry, from both a US and worldwide perspective. Schweitzer discusses the industry both as a manufacturer of products and as a major player in the making of health-care decisions. The author also analyzes the reasons and results of the shift in the locus of demand for pharmaceuticals. Presently the most important factor in formulating the future direction of pharmaceutical research are the demands of the large managed-care organizations rather than individual physicians. HMOs make decisions about product access on behalf of hundreds of thousands of patients. Recent changes in the regulatory environment--including patent law and FDA approval policies--have also influenced the pharmaceutical sector and are therefore investigated in detail.
Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy provides an insightful and expert analysis of this complex sector, and suggests appropriate regulatory approaches to assure that both private and public objectives continue to be served. It provides the first comprehensive look at the economics of the pharmaceutical industry in over 25 years. Readable and balanced, it will serve as an authoritative reference source for students and researchers in health services, health administration, health economics and policy, as well as for policy analysts and economists in industry, managed care organizations, and hospitals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr. Schweitzer...has performed a valuable service by writing a broad overview of these topics....The chapter on pharmaceutical regulation and cost containment and the roles of the different players in this area was quite interesting...The chapter devoted solely to patents was also most welcome....Very valuable book. It contains current information, delivered in an evenhanded way, on a wide range of topics. It is a useful overview of an important area of health care."--Mark J. Goldberger, M.D., M.P.H., The New England Journal of Medicine

"Schweitzer's book is a much-needed, ambitious contribution to the field and an important starting point for graduate-level studies....Parmaceutical Economics and Policy is an important, useful contribution to the literature."--American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy

"This book is easy to read and provides an exellent overview of the pharmaceutical industry. The economic framework used to analyze the industry contributes substantially to an understanding of this industry. This book makes a useful contribution to anyone interested in understanding pharmacoeconomic theory and the characteristics of the pharaceutical industry."--Inquiry

"In summary, this book is both an interesting and valuable contribution to the policy discussion involving pharmaceuticals in this country."--Journal of Economic Literature

"...this book is a must-have if you are seriously interested in the domestic and international pharmaceutical industry. Its greatest strength is concise yet comprehensive coverage of many of the important issues relating to the industry."--Journal of Public Health Policy

About the Author

Stuart O. Schweitzer, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health. His research in health economics deals primarily with the application of new technology to health care. Dr. Schweitzer is a frequent consultant to health organizations both in the U.S. and abroad.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195105249
• ISBN-13: 978-0195105247
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,241,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Regrettably, out of date..., March 7, 2004

By 

Dr. van der Linden (Williamstown, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy (Hardcover)

---
...since its publication in 1997, for during the interval we've had (among other developments):

(1) The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (FDAMA '97),

(2) The promulgation of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals (2002), and

(3) The federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) formally weighing in with their final "anti-kickback" guidance from the Office of their Inspector General (OIG), incidentally shutting the door between pharmaceuticals marketing and the drug manufacturers' "support" of continuing medical education (CME) on April 28, 2003.

(4) New concerns regarding drug safety issues (both pre- and post-marketing) have been raised by way of the COX-2 NSAID crisis, particularly by Merck's defalcations in the suppression of adverse events data in the 2000 publication of their VIGOR trial results (see Waxman's editorial in *The New England Journal of Medicine*, June 23, 2005;352[25]:2576-2578), and have invoked structural and procedural changes in the FDA's Office of New Drugs (OND) the end of which is not yet in sight.

(5) Medicare Part "D" has gone into effect, with NICE long-term implications for future impact upon the pharmaceutical industry in these United States.

Things have *changed,* folks. There's ten years' worth of critically important regulatory and pharmacoeconomic changes that neither the author nor the rest of the industry could have taken into consideration back when the galleys of this book were returned to the publisher. To the best of my knowledge, there is still no other source of information on the subject as ambitious (and as competently written) as is Dr. Schweitzer's work. Both author and publisher must certainly be aware of the fact that there is a need (and a definite market) for a new edition.
---

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars most comprehensive book on the Pharmaceutical market, August 26, 2000

By 

P. Caetano "pcaetano" (Maineville, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy (Hardcover)

I believe the book is useful for everyone in The Pharmaceutical Industry. It will be useful for reps, higher management, physicians, technicians, scientists, product and regulatory affairs managers and just about anyone who wants to "think outside the box" of their specific role within the industry. Despite its broad range the book is succinct, never vague, and contains a plethora of useful information. I came across this book without never having heard about the author and with the sole purpose of finding specific economic data. I found that and much more. What an astonishing surprise the book was. The book presents the most comprehensive and intelligently condensed information about the overall pharmaceutical market forces, that I saw recently. specific to the industry. For instance, the short Chapter (2) on marketing Pharmaceuticals offers more important data and contextual information than most books entirely dedicated to Pharmaceutical marketing. In a little more than 20 pages the author manages to provide useful information about sales forces management and economic analysis, including joint marketing, along with definitions about all types of promotional materials and relevant organizations for promotion of Pharmaceuticals, including Continuing Medical Education and the FDA's Division of Marketing. In the even shorter chapter on pricing, the author starts by cleverly laying out the fundamentals of supply and demand for Pharmaceuticals and goes on to quantitatively and contextually explain the worldwide differences. Overall the book has information just about any Pharmaceutical market topic; from all of the non-life sciences issues associated with pre-clinical development of drugs to the structure and future trends of the industry. All this information is easy to find because the book is simply organized in internal analysis (the industry) versus external analysis (consumer, market, public and private influential institutions). I'm truly impressed with the depth and range of knowledge displayed in this book, so much so that if I wasn't working for The Pharmaceutical Industry already I would approach Professor Schweitzer for a postdoctoral research.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy, April 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy (Hardcover)

I commend the author's attempt to provide a comprehensive review of pharmaceutical economics and policy in less than three hundred pages. This book is an interesting read and is accessible to those of us who are not economists. However, I would not recommend this book to others due to the facts that (1) the author is inconsistent in referencing the literature and (2) he often fails to present alternative interpretations of the empirical evidence. For example, the author uses evidence of price discrimination to demonstrate the "importance of consumer demand" in the pricing of pharmaceuticals and, by extension, the presence of competition in the pharmaceutical market (pgs. 103-105). However, he fails to point out that price discrimination by pharmaceutical companies reduces consumer surplus, a direct benefit of competitive markets. In addition, the book contains many typos that may prove distracting to some readers.