Cross-country study on the promotion of new pharmaceutical products

Abstract

Detailers are one of the most powerful components of pharmaceutical marketing. Drug manufactures spend a lion's share of their marketing budgets on their detailers, and with direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing coming under closer scrutiny, it is likely that detailing will receive even more funding in the coming years. This thesis analyzes how differences in detailing regulations in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, and France lead to differences in the promotion and sales of antinausea, antihypertensive, and antipsychotic medications during the time period of 1992 to 2003. In order to determine if promotional efforts vary across generations of medications in the same therapeutic class, antinausea and antipsychotic medications are classified as new and old generations and antihypertensives are classified as new, middle, and old generations in this study. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to examine population, economic, price, promotional, regulatory, and cultural factors that contribute to the sales of pharamaceutical products. The qualitative discussion includes an overview of all five sample countries' health care systems, health care policies, and the prevalence of hypertension, cancer incidence, and psychosis.

(cont.) Econometric tools are used to conduct the quantitative analysis. The effect on pharmaceutical sales and the diffusion of new generation pharmaceutical products is examined. Chow tests are conducted for cross-country differences. This study finds that there are significant cross-country differences in the diffusion of the three therapeutic classes in the five sample countries examined in this thesis. The different factors examined contribute to diffusion in varying extents in the five sample countries. Culture is found to play an important role in the sale and use of all three therapeutic classes, but an especially crucial role in the case of antipsychotics. The promotional factors appear to play a significant role in the diffusion of new generation products relative to older generation products, but are not found to have a statistically significant effect on the larger therapeutic level.