Department of Economics, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Department of Economics & Finance, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
Health Econ. 2021 Sep;30(10):2409-2436. doi: 10.1002/hec.4380. Epub 2021 Jul 13.
Although cannabis is federally prohibited, a majority of U.S. states have implemented medical cannabis laws (MCLs). As more individuals consider the drug for medical treatment, they potentially substitute away from prescription drugs. Therefore, an MCL signals competitor entry. This paper exploits geographic and temporal variation in MCLs to examine the strategic response in direct-to-physician marketing by pharmaceutical firms as cannabis enters the market. Using office detailing records from 2014-2018 aggregated to the county level, we find weak evidence of a relatively small and delayed response in substitute prescription drug- and opioid-related detailing. While these effects on detailing dollars are more pronounced among smaller pharmaceutical firms, the magnitudes are economically small and likely muted at aggregate levels by the small percent of doctors that actively recommend cannabis for medical treatment.
尽管大麻在联邦层面上是被禁止的，但美国大多数州都实施了医用大麻法（MCL）。随着越来越多的人考虑将大麻用于医疗治疗，他们可能会转而选择非处方药物。因此，MCL 标志着竞争对手的进入。本文利用 MCL 在地理和时间上的变化，考察了大麻进入市场时制药公司向医生直接营销的战略反应。我们使用了 2014 年至 2018 年汇总到县级的办公细节记录，发现替代处方药物和阿片类药物相关细节方面的反应相对较小且滞后，这一证据较弱。虽然这些对细节金额的影响在较小的制药公司中更为明显，但由于积极推荐大麻用于医疗治疗的医生比例较小，其经济规模较小，而且在总体水平上可能被淡化。
