Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/106172 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 15-004
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
We study the effects of a change in the way patient reimbursements are calculated on the prices of pharmaceuticals using quasi-experimental data for Denmark which switched from external (where reimbursements are based on prices of similar products in foreign countries) to internal reference pricing (where they are based on the cheapest domestic substitute). We analyze three therapeutic classes with different treatment durations and show that the reform led to substantial price decreases for our lifelong treatment and to less substantial price reductions for our medium duration treatment while we do not find significant effects on our acute treatment. Moreover, the reform did only affect generics and did not impact original products or parallel imports.
Subjects: 
pharmaceutical markets
regulation
reference pricing
treatment duration
JEL: 
I18
C23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
307.71 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.