This paper examines the role of both cost-sharing schemes in health insurance systems and the regulation of entry into the pharmaceutical sector for pharmaceutical R&D expenditure and drug prices. The analysis suggests that both an increase in the coinsurance rate and stricter price regulations adversely affect R&D spending in the pharmaceutical sector. In contrast, entry deregulation may lead ...

UNLABELLED Medicines are health technologies that can translate into tangible benefits for numerous acute as well as chronic health conditions. A nation's pharmaceutical sector needs to be appropriately structured and managed in order to ensure a safe, effective and quality supply of medicines to society. The process of medicines management involves the sequential management of five critical ac...

The Indian pharmaceutical sector a key sciencebased industry has come a long way, from nominal and costly presence before 1970 to a prominent provider of pharmaceutical products, meeting more than 90 percent of the country’s pharmaceutical needs. Thanks to the thoughtful patent policy adopted by the government in 1970, among other things. Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the high perfor...

Over the past 40 years or so the Indian pharmaceutical sector witnessed rapid growth and transformation. From a mere volume of just Rs. 10 core in 1947, the industry registered a sales turnover of about US $ 5.5 billion in 2004 with an annual growth rate of about 17%. The flexible provisions of the Patent Act of 1970 and other supportive policies of the Government of India played an instrumenta...

Most of today's major pharmaceutical companies were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Key discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s, such as insulin and penicillin, became mass-manufactured and distributed. Global pharmaceutical market is highly dynamic and is characterized by greater levels of R&D expenditure and extensive regulation of its products. Global pharmaceutical sales are e...

While six sigma quality has long been achieved in other industries, it is rarely seen in the pharmaceutical sector. However, consumers and patients deserve six sigma quality pharmaceuticals with minimal risks of shortages or recalls. We propose that the future of pharmaceutical quality is six sigma, meaning that no more than 3.4 defects occur per million opportunities. We discuss the path to ge...

This paper analyzes the changing R&D process at Japanese pharmaceutical companies, based on a questionnaire survey as well as structured interviews at large Japanese pharmaceutical companies. Japanese pharmaceutical companies have recently engaged in active R&D collaborations with other firms as well as universities. This paper identifies the factors underlying this trend, finding that all thre...

The present study aims to identify the financial strengths and weaknesses of the Indian public sector pharmaceutical enterprises by properly establishing relationships between the items of the balance sheet and profit and loss account. The study covers two public sector drug and pharmaceutical enterprises listed on BSE. The study has been undertaken for the period of twelve years from 1997-98 t...

Within less than a decade the World Bank has become the largest single source of finance (loans) for health in low and middle income countries as well as a major player in the field of pharmaceuticals. Often 20-50% of the recurrent government health budget in developing countries is used to procure drugs. Drugs are among the most salient and cost-effective elements of health care and often a ke...