The relationship between costs and health benefits of branded pharmaceuticals remains controversial. This paper … branded pharmaceuticals with both higher costs and increased effectiveness compared to the previous standard of care … the variation in the cost of pharmaceuticals is, therefore, not random but rather associated with variation in QALYs …

incorporate Ricardo's insight about demand-driven productivity in settings of variable scarce resources, and estimate the industry …'s responsiveness to changes in demand over this timeframe using therapeutic class-specific data. In contrast to many analyses, our … empirical estimates indicate that the industry has “met demand” with remarkable consistency since the late-1980s. The growth in …