Patent Expiration, Entry, and Competition in the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

Michael D. Whinston, Richard E. Caves, and Mark A. Hurwitz

Discussants: Peter Temin and Ariel Pakes

Microeconomics 1991

THE ETHICAL PHARMACEUTICAL industry is an important one, not so much for its economic size as for the benefits that it delivers to users of its products. The industry has been transformed structurally since the 1940s from a producer of selected chemicals to a research-oriented sector that makes a major contribution to the technology of health care. Its very success in generating a stream of new drugs with important therapeutic benefits has involved the industry in intense public policy debates over the financing of the cost of its research, the veracity of claims for its products, the prices charged for them (not to mention who pays those charges), and the socially optimal degree of patent protection.

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Patent Expiration, Entry, and Competition in the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

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Patent Expiration, Entry, and Competition in the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

Michael D. Whinston, MDW Michael D. Whinston Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research Richard E. Caves, and REC Richard E. Caves Harvard University Mark A. Hurwitz MAH Mark A. Hurwitz Columbia Law School Discussants: Peter Temin and PT Peter Temin Ariel Pakes AP Ariel Pakes

Michael D. Whinston, Richard E. Caves, and Mark A. Hurwitz

Discussants: Peter Temin and Ariel Pakes