Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Value Based Pricing of Pharmaceuticals in the US and UK: Does Centralized Cost Effectiveness Analysis Matter?

  • Published:
Review of Industrial Organization Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Increasingly, government policies directed towards limiting pharmaceutical prices have emphasized value-based criteria. This regulatory approach is most clearly formalized in the United Kingdom where the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was created within the British National Health Service (NHS), whose function is to apply cost-effectiveness analysis to new drugs. In contrast to Britain, there is no formal regulatory mechanism assuring cost-effectiveness in the United States. Instead, questions of cost effectiveness are left to market processes. In this paper, we examine the pricing implications of these alternate regimes. From our empirical analysis, we conclude that value-based pricing is enforced by both regulatory and market processes, and with similar outcomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Department of Health and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. (2013). The pharmaceutical price regulation scheme 2014, December 2013, Gov.UK.

  • Drummond, M., et al. (1987). Methods for economic evaluation of health care programmes. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekelund, M., & Persson, B. (2003). Pharmaceutical pricing in a regulated market. Review of Economics and Statistics, 85, 298–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faden, R. R., & Chalkidou, K. (2011). Determining the value of drugs: The evolving British experience. New England Journal of Medicine, 364, 1289–1291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, E. (2010). Associate Director of NICE, Interview, London, April 2010.

  • Gold, M. R., Siegel, J. E., Russell, L. B., & Weinstein, M. C. (Eds.). (1996). Cost effectiveness in health and medicine. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. (2015). Medicines use and spending shifts. Parsippany, NJ.

  • Jena, A. B., & Philipson, T. J. (2013). Endogenous cost-effectiveness analysis and health care technology adoption. Journal of Health Economics, 32, 172–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, Z. J., & Comanor, W. S. (1998). Strategic pricing of new pharmaceuticals. Review of Economics and Statistics, 80, 108–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolte, E., & Corbett, J. (2014). International variation in drug usage. London: RAND Europe.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, P., & Sussex, J. (2014). International comparison of medicines usage: Quantitative analysis. London: Office of Health Economics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawlins, M. D. (2013). NICE: Moving onward. New England Journal of Medicine, 369, 3–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reekie, W. D. (1978). Price and quality competition in the United States drug industry. Journal of Industrial Economics, 26, 223–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, M. (2010). Extent and causes of international variations in drug use. A report for the Secretary of State for Health, UK, July 2010.

  • Scherer, F. M. (2000). The pharmaceutical industry. In A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (Eds.), Handbook of health economics (pp. 1298–1336). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scherer, F. M. (2010). Chapter 12: Pharmaceutical innovation. In B. H. Hall & N. Rosenberg (Eds.), Economics of innovation: Handbook on the economics of innovation (Vol. 1, pp. 539–574). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, S. O. (2007). Pharmaceutical economics and policy (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Center for Health Statistics. (2014). Health United States. Washington: Department of Health and Human Services.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William S. Comanor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Comanor, W.S., Schweitzer, S.O., Riddle, J.M. et al. Value Based Pricing of Pharmaceuticals in the US and UK: Does Centralized Cost Effectiveness Analysis Matter?. Rev Ind Organ 52, 589–602 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11151-018-9616-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11151-018-9616-1

Keywords

Navigation