Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107546 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8759
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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