Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Presented in this volume are various contributions on the functioning and the dynamics of the prescription drug markets. Key issues such as switching drugs from prescription to over the counter (OTC); regulation versus competition; the search and patent terms; international comparisons of innovation processes; and patterns of consumption are all discussed in the book. At a time when many challenges are happening in the industry (e.g. stronger American and Japanese competition, regulatory changes, pressure for more cost containment, and decline of innovation), the book provides useful analysis of some of these changes.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Defining the prescription drug market versus over the counter drugs (OTC)
• Issues in harmonisation of classification of medicines available on prescription only
• Benefits from switching drugs from prescription-only to over-the-counter availability: the UK experience
• Self-medication in Sweden from an industry perspective
• The use of international comparisons to improve the understanding of price control and reimbursement of prescription drugs
• More regulation or more competition in the European pharmaceutical market
• Prescription reimbursement systems in selected European countries
• How to improve optimal delivery of prescription drug?
• The hospital pharmacist in consultation
• Marketing, Incentives and Consumption
• Innovation in the prescription drugs. Introduction and withdrawal of new pharmaceutical chemical entities in the UK and France: a comparative analysis
• Competitive Positions of European firms in the US pharmaceutical market
• On the existence of a price-research-exports circuit in the Italian pharmaceutical industry: causality and co-integration of time series in the 1968-1988 period
• Policies on pharmaceutical patents: the impact of patent protection on R and D
• Conclusions
• Index