Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2456

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Hollis A.
The importance of being first: evidence from Canadian generic pharmaceuticals.
Health Econ 2002 Dec; 11:(8):723-34
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12457372

Abstract:

This paper uses pooled cross-section data on Canadian ethical drug sales to examine the effect of entry timing on sales of generic drugs. The data is for all drugs for which the first generic competitor entered during the years 1994-1997. It is found that the first generic entrant has a lasting competitive advantage: being first into the market appears to lead to an increase of around 30% in market share (among generics) over a period of at least 4 years. This finding has considerable implications for the current policy of allowing brandname drug companies to issue pseudo-generic equivalents as a preemptive strike against true generic competitors.

Keywords:
Canada Cross-Sectional Studies Drug Costs/statistics & numerical data Drug Industry/economics* Drugs, Generic/economics* Drugs, Generic/supply & distribution Economic Competition Humans Marketing/economics* Prescription Fees/statistics & numerical data Prescriptions, Drug/economics Regression Analysis Time Factors *analytic survey *cross-sectional study Canada generics market share pseudo-generics INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: MARKET SHARE PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES: INDUSTRY