Price competition in the chinese pharmaceutical market

Yiqing Wang

International Journal of Health Economics and Management, 2006, vol. 6, issue 2, 119-129

Abstract: We study price competition between high-quality global products and low-quality local products in a developing country, i.e., China, Nearly all previous studies on pharmaceutical price competition focused on developed countries with bioequivalent generics. In China, local generic products are not bioequivalent and are deemed of lower quality, while global products in the same class are considered similar in quality and better substitutes. We hypothesize that local generic competition drives down local product price but not global product price. In addition, we hypothesize that therapeutic competition among similar global products lowers global product price. Our empirical results support both hypotheses. Number of local generic competitors has a significantly negative effect on local product price but no effect on global product price, while number of global therapeutic competitors has a significantly negative effect on global product price. Policy changes that encourage bioequivalent local products and accelerate global product approvals will enhance price competition in China. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

Keywords: Pharmaceutical price competition; Generic competition; Therapeutic competition; Pharmaceutical market in developing countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10754-006-5558-5

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