Global Drug Diffusion and Innovation with the Medicines Patent Pool
96 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2019 Last revised: 17 Dec 2021
There are 2 versions of this paper
Global Drug Diffusion and Innovation with the Medicines Patent Pool
Global Drug Diffusion and Innovation with the Medicines Patent Pool
Date Written: April 14, 2021
Abstract
This paper studies the impact of the first joint licensing platform for patented drugs, the Medicines Patent Pool, on global drug diffusion and innovation. The pool allows generic firms worldwide to license drug bundles cheaply and conveniently for sales in a set of developing countries. I construct a novel dataset from licensing contracts, public procurement, clinical trials, and drug approvals. Using difference-in-differences methods, I find that the pool leads to substantial increases in the generic supply of drugs purchased. In addition, R&D inputs and outputs respond positively overall. The estimated benefits to consumers and firms far exceed the operating costs.
Keywords: patent pool, drug bundling, innovation and diffusion
JEL Classification: O3, K2, I1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation