Role of Pharmacists in Generic Pharmaceutical Adoption

Haruo Kakehi and Ryo Nakajima
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Haruo Kakehi: Graduate School of Economics, Keio University
Ryo Nakajima: Faculty of Economics, Keio University

No 2024-015, Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series from Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University

Abstract: This study investigates how pharmacists dispense generic drugs by considering patients' brand preferences. While the literature shows that pharmacists, as experts, underestimate brand premiums, our data show that they frequently dispense brand-identical generics, known as authorized generics. We model patients' generic drug choices and pharmacies' dispensing decisions to explain how patients' brand preferences vary across pharmacies and to determine for-profit pharmacists' heterogeneous dispensing behavior. Using Japanese pharmacists' dispensing data, our empirical results show significant variations in patients' brand preferences and perceived differences in the quality of antibiotics. Furthermore, our findings show that one of the factors behind these differences is the provision of information by pharmacists.

Keywords: generic pharmaceuticals; authorized generic; brand premiums; pharmacist behavior; information provision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 I11 I18 L65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2024-06-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ind and nep-ipr
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