Parallel Imports, Drag Price Control and Pharmaceutical Innovation

This paper examines how parallel importation influences pharmaceutical innovation and the welfare of the economy, when crossnational drug price differentials occur not only because of demand elasticity based factors, but also governmental drug price control based factors. By explicitly considering the governmental drug price control baaed factors, this paper shows that parallel importation may enhance pharmaceutical innovation, when the bargaining power of a foreign government is strong and the price elasticity of demand in the foreign market is small. We also show that the increase in R&D induced by parallel imports may even increase the consumer surplus of a country with high demand elasticities and which could face relatively low drug prices, if parallel imports were not allowed.