Pharmaceuticals markets

The sales of antagonists of receptors, eg, diphenhydramine, terfenadine, and astemizole, used in the treatment of allergic diseases, represent 1% of the overall pharmaceutical market, ie, 1.7 biUion (U.S.). antagonists, eg, cimetidine and ranitidine, are effective in peptic ulcer disease and esophageal reflux. Sales represent 3.5% of the world market, ie, 6 biUion (U.S.). agonists or antagonists have not yet found a clear indication. 

A new generation of antiinflammatory agents having immunosuppressive activity has been developed. The appearance of preclinical and clinical reports suggest that these are near entry to the pharmaceutical market. For example, tenidap (CP-66,248) (12) has been demonstrated to inhibit IL-1 production from human peripheral blood monocytes in culture (55). Clinically, IL-1 in synovial fluids of arthritic patients was reduced following treatment with tenidap. Patients with rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, when treated with tenidap, showed clinical improvement (57,58). In addition to its immunological effects, tenidap also has an antiinflammatory profile similar to the classical NSAIDs (59). Other synthetic inhibitors of IL-1 production are SKF 86002 (20) andE-5110 (21) (55). 

The Pharmaceutical Market, World Repiew 1989, IMS International, a Company of the Dun Bradstreet Corporation. 

There are many nonsteroidal antiinflammatory dmgs. In fact, this is by far the largest portion of the pharmaceutical market, with 1990s woddwide... 

Technical data. The Pharmaceutical Market World Keview, Vol. I, International, IMS Global Services, 1994, used with permission C. Vezina, in Basic Biotechnology, J. Bu Lock and B. Kristiansen, eds.. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1987, pp. 463—482. 

The Pharmaceutical Market World Keview, Vol. I, International, IMS Global Services, 1990 and 1994. 

Market Forms. Vitamin B 2 is sold almost exclusively as cyanocobalamin. Approximately one-third of the material is for the human pharmaceutical market whereas two-thirds is used in the animal feed market, primarily for poultry and swine (see Feeds AND FEED ADDITIVES). Modest growth in both markets has occurred in the period 1980—1995 and this trend is expected to continue. 

The evolution of FDA policies continues to be a significant driving force on the global pharmaceutical market. Several pharmaceutical firms have made new discoveries while evaluating enantiopure drugs originally discovered and marketed as race-mates by others. These pharmaceutical firms have merged, or other companies have appropriated portfolios of patents based on chiral switches. Thus, the FDA contin-... 

However, despite their practical and societal value, vaccines remain only a small component of the global pharmaceutical market ( 5 billion out of 350 billion sales in 2000). The vaccine market is dominated by just four large manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis Pasteur, Wyeth, and Merck Co. There is, however, a strong resurgence of interest in vaccines, with a growing cluster of small vaccine companies and biotech hrms, led by Chiron. 

According to Julsing et al. [2], alkaloids can be classified in terms of their biological activities, their chemical structures, or their biosynthetic pathways [2]. Over 12 000 alkaloids are known so far from plants, and several of these are being used medicinally in the global pharmaceutical market worth 4 billion US dollars [2]. 

Replacing PVC with PP allows compliance with environmental standards in some pharmaceutical markets. These materials are cold formed instead of being thermoformed. Such packages require more packaging materials than thermoplastic plastic films for the packaging of the same number and same size of tablets or capsules. 

The basis for applications will follow the principles laid down in basic European level legislation for the pharmaceutical sector. This is more or less common regardless of the actual mechanism used to gain an approval. The basic requirements for pharmaceutical marketing authorization applications are laid down in Directive 65/65/EEC (as amended). There are no specific requirements for pharmaceutical development or process validation included in the text of that document. 

Three submarkets of the pharmaceutical market can be distinguished innovative patented products sold by prescription, products whose patent has expired and are sold by prescription, and products sold without a prescription. The public regulation of prices in the first of these submarkets, and often also in the second, is a fact that can be observed in most Western countries, with certain notable exceptions such as the USA. Concern about the particular characteristics of the pharmaceutical market (for example, the existence of patents and the pharmaceutical industry s rate of return), together with the desire to provide the majority of the population with access to medicines, regardless of their ability to pay (in many countries the public sector is the main buyer in this market), has led to the fairly widespread adoption of more or less strict price intervention and control policies for pharmaceuticals. 

There is a long-standing habit in the health economics literature of supporting the need to regulate health care services in market failures such as information asymmetries, complexity and uncertainty, indivisibilities and externalities. These imperfections are also present in the market of a resource that is very important in the health service production process pharmaceutical products. However, the pharmaceutical market also presents certain specific characteristics that are of particular importance and have been used as arguments in favour of the need to adopt public policies of price intervention and regulation. 

Even in an ideal situation in which the doctor is a perfect agent for the patient, the need to regulate prices in the pharmaceutical market may arise from insufficient or very weak competition owing to the temporary market power of the manufacturers, the oligopolistic nature of many therapeutic submarkets, low elasticity of demand and imperfect prescriber information.1... 

First, the pharmaceutical market failures mentioned above may be empirically inconsequential, which may either render their regulation unnecessary or make it advisable to use more flexible price control policies. For example, justifications for regulation that are based on the virtual absence of competition seem weak when one observes markets with products whose patent has expired. When a patent expires barriers to entry should disappear, since the composition of the active ingredient becomes public, and other companies should not have too many problems to reproduce the production process. The reasons brandished for price regulation when any company can manufacture a generic to compete with the brand product find no justification in theory. 

The theoretical and practical features of PCR and the specific problems involved in its possible application to the pharmaceutical market lead to the following recommendable courses of action ... 

In this section we analyse the effects of price regulation and control systems in pharmaceutical markets on levels of consumption, the level and evolution of prices and levels of expenditure. 

Patricia M. Danzon and Li-Wei Chao, Does regulation drive out competition in pharmaceutical markets Journal of Law and Economics, 2000, XLIII, October 311-357. 

Wiggins, S.N. and R. Maness (1994), Price competition in pharmaceutical markets , unpublished document, Texas A M University. 

European pharmaceutical markets are strongly regulated as regards the introduction of new products onto the market (through authorization and patents) and also as regards prices and consumption (medical prescription and public financing). However, the way in which entry, prices and consumption of pharmaceuticals are regulated varies enormously from country to country. 

For those readers who are not accustomed to the jargon of pharmaceutical markets, at this point we give an example to illustrate the nomenclature of... 

The information in the Prescription Cost Analysis System and the Base de Datos de Especialidades Farmaceuticas (Pharmaceutical Product Database) is compiled according to accounting criteria. We processed the information and created two structured databases in order to obtain the statistics that will show us the competition and the structure of the pharmaceutical markets of each of the countries studied. 

Table 4.4 Therapeutic competition in the pharmaceutical market as a whole (%)...

The empirical evidence presented above enables us to draw two main conclusions first, competition in pharmaceutical markets is effective between therapeutically differentiated products whereas a small number of products enjoy positions of dominance over their closest therapeutic and generic rivals and second, competition in pharmaceutical markets depends enormously on national regulations. 

Mechanisms to encourage price competition in the pharmaceutical market and their effects on efficiency and welfare... 

In the following section of this chapter we analyse the various types of market structure that occur in the case of pharmaceuticals, and we review the different factors that can limit the functioning of price competition in this market on both the supply side and the demand side. Finally, we analyse possible forms of intervention, in particular mechanisms to encourage price competition in pharmaceutical markets, and discuss the extent to which they might improve efficiency and social welfare. 

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