Reviewer: Albert I Wertheimer, BS, MBA, PhD (Temple University School of Pharmacy)
Description: This is a wonderfully comprehensive examination of the internal and external economic forces affecting the pharmaceutical industry. It includes the biotechnology, generic, and international sectors and provides thorough reviews on the impact of regulations, price controls, patents, and marketing policies. This second edition is up-to-date and complete.
Purpose: The pharmaceutical sector is essential in all healthcare systems and yet most studies or reports only deal with selected topics or questions. This book reviews the entire industry and its components. It is useful for students in pharmacy, medicine, public health, health administration, and economics as well as for health planners, regulators, and those working in health policy. The book is much needed as there are few places where one can find a thorough, organized, and integrated treatise on this topic. The book even has a section on complementary and alternative medicines and a look into the future for pharmaceuticals and health policy. The author has succeeded in providing a one-stop resource for information about the economic and regulatory environment facing the pharmaceutical industry.
Audience: The author suggests that the book should be useful for students in related fields as well as for persons working in these areas. The book is useful in pharmaceutical marketing, public relations, lobbying, for persons preparing lectures, and persons in the various regulatory agencies. The information is accurate, objective, and current and is presented with appropriate perspective. It is very useful for anyone involved in the pharmaceutical realm.
Features: One may find fine information on the approval of new drugs, their marketing, price controls, the use of patents, pricing, and most aspects of the conduct of the industry in these areas. What is best about the book is its comprehensiveness. It covers topics little written about, such as nongovernmental price regulations, timing information about government approvals, and detailed data about alternative medicines, and a superb interpretation of the conduct of the marketplace in the U.S. and abroad. A more detailed index would be the only thing I would suggest if there is to be a third edition.
Assessment: This is a welcome addition to the market. It is extremely well organized and written and has precise information. The listed citations are abundant enough to enable the serious student to locate further information.
2 Stars from Doody
This book is the first in-depth evaluation of the economics of the U.S. and world-wide pharmaceutical industry in more than 25 years. It evaluates the pharmaceutical industry, marketing strategies of the pharmaceutical industry, the demand for pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical market, and interventions in the pharmaceutical market, including regulation, patient protection, new drug evaluation, and future health policy. The purpose is to explore conflicting priorities and aims of the pharmaceutical industry. This text, using an economic framework, examines the supply and demand sides of the pharmaceutical market as well as policies that attempt to alter market performance. The audience for this book is broad and will include healthcare professionals and students interested in health economics, health administration, pharmacy administration, and public policy. In addition, individuals working for healthcare regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical industry, health delivery organizations and healthcare insurance providers will find this information valuable. Highlights of the text include an in-depth discussion of pharmaceutical industry research and development practices, pharmaceutical marketing strategies, pharmaceutical pricing strategies, and patient protection issues. This book represents a worthwhile effort in discussing the economics and market forces that shape the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. and abroad. Although some of the chapters appear to be disjointed from others, each contains useful and relevant information. The discussion of foreign regulatory affairs, foreign drug development, and pharmacoeconomic evaluations of new drugs tend to be less in-depth than otherissues. The book may have faired better if the global perspective were eliminated. Given these relatively minor detractions, the text is a welcome addition to those readers who deal with the pharmaceutical industrial and public policy issues.
