The Effects of Off-label Drug Use on Disability and Medical Expenditure

Katharina Blankart and Frank Lichtenberg

No 30440, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Does using prescription drugs off-label increase disability and medical expenditure? This paper uses a unique dataset to evaluate off-label vs. on-label drug use in the US non-institutionalized population. Patients using drugs off-label have on average $515 higher medical expenditure and work-loss cost. Pharmaceutical innovation has direct and indirect effects on off-label drug use. Market size is indicative of the fraction of treatments used off-label. Our findings have implications for regulation and welfare. We address endogeneity issues by demonstrating that patients with higher disease severity do not experience higher off-label uses and by controlling for unobserved individual and condition effects.

JEL-codes: I1 L65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Working Paper: The effects of off-label drug use on disability and medical expenditure (2022)
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