HLTHAGE 2F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Compulsory License, Prescription Drug, Health Canada
Document Summary
Pharmaceuticals constitute an increasingly important component of health care. Include those names most familiar to the general public, such as bayer, glaxo- Smith-kline, and merck-frosst: the brand-name sector is dominated by a small number of large multinational companies, two trends, the brand-name sector has become more concentrated through mergers, a proliferation of small, biotech start-ups. Government regulation of the pharmaceutical industry: patent regulation, drug safety and the drug approval process, competition in the pharmaceutical industry, patent regulation. The goal of pharmaceutical industry is to produce new knowledge (new knowledge can be embodied in a product). But once produce and in the public domain, in the absence of regulation, knowledge can be freely used. Pharmaceutical industry is characterized by high, fixed research and development costs that must be incurred regardless of how many units of a drug are eventually sold, and low marginal costs of production once a drug has been developed.