This paper provides an overview on 18 papers presented at a Stanford University conference on the Asian pharmaceutical industries. It begins by putting the contributions and growth of individual national industries in quantitative perspective. Several substantive issues are then addressed: (1)...

Objectives: Many European countries regulate the markets for prescription drugs in order to cope with rising health expenditures. On the other hand, regulation distorts incentives to invest in pharmaceutical R&D. This study aims at empirically assessing the impact of regulation on pharmaceutical...

This paper studies the effect of pharmaceutical regulation at the wholesale level, if markets are integrated by parallel trade, i.e. trade outside the manufacturerś authorized distribution channel. In particular, maximum wholesale margins, a restriction of pricing by the intermediary, and...

This paper analyzes a maximum price system and a reference price system in a vertical differentiation model with a brand-name drug and a generic. In particular, both instruments are compared with respect to their performance in reducing public expenditure, limiting financial exposure of...