GATE-CNRS, University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
IRDES-Paris, Paris, France.
Eur J Health Econ. 2016 Jan;17(1):45-60. doi: 10.1007/s10198-014-0654-9. Epub 2014 Dec 12.
Pharmaceutical firms have been criticized for concentrating efforts of R&D on the so-called me-too or follow-on drugs. There have been many comments for and against the dissemination of these incremental innovations but few papers have broached the subject from an econometric point of view, possibly because identification of me-too or follow-on drugs is not so obvious. This paper focuses on the impact of entry order on follow-on drug competition in the French market between the years 2001 and 2007. More precisely, this study examines the effects on market share of first entrants in the follow-on drug market and how this possible competitive advantage changes over time. First results are coherent with theoretical microeconomic issues concerning the importance of being first. We find evidence that first movers in the follow-on drug market have the ability to capture and maintain greater market share for a long period of time. The hierarchical market position of follow-on drugs does not seem to be affected by generic drug emergence. From a dynamic perspective, our analysis shows that market share is positively correlated with the ability of follow-on drugs to set prices higher than the average follow-on drug prices in a specific therapeutic class, which means that market power remains considerably important for first movers. Moreover, we found that the optimum level of innovation to maximize market share is the highest one.
制药公司因专注于所谓的“me-too”或跟进药物的研发而受到批评。对于这些增量创新的传播，有很多赞成和反对的意见，但很少有论文从计量经济学的角度探讨这个问题，可能是因为识别“me-too”或跟进药物并不那么明显。本文重点研究了 2001 年至 2007 年法国市场中进入顺序对跟进药物竞争的影响。更确切地说，本研究考察了进入跟进药物市场的先行者对市场份额的影响，以及这种可能的竞争优势随时间的变化。最初的结果与关于先动优势重要性的微观经济学理论问题一致。我们发现，在跟进药物市场中，先行者有能力在很长一段时间内获得并保持更大的市场份额。跟进药物的等级市场地位似乎不受仿制药出现的影响。从动态的角度来看，我们的分析表明，市场份额与跟进药物设定高于特定治疗类别中平均跟进药物价格的能力呈正相关，这意味着市场力量对先行者仍然非常重要。此外，我们发现，实现市场份额最大化的最佳创新水平是最高水平。
