Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs

Iain Cockburn, Jean Lanjouw and Mark Schankerman

No 20492, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper studies how patent rights and price regulation affect how fast new drugs are launched in different countries, using newly constructed data on launches of 642 new drugs in 76 countries for the period 1983-2002, and information on the duration and content of patent and price control regimes. Price regulation strongly delays launch, while longer and more extensive patent protection accelerates it. Health policy institutions, and economic and demographic factors that make markets more profitable, also speed up diffusion. The effects are robust to using instruments to control for endogeneity of policy regimes. The results point to an important role for patents and other policy choices in driving the diffusion of new innovations.

JEL-codes: I15 I18 K19 L65 O31 O33 O34 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-tid
Note: PR
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published as Iain M. Cockburn & Jean O. Lanjouw & Mark Schankerman, 2016. "Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 136-64, January.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs (2016)
Working Paper: Patents and the global diffusion of new drugs (2016)
Working Paper: Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs (2014)
Working Paper: Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs (2014)
Working Paper: Patents and the global diffusion of new drugs (2014)
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