Follow-on Drug Development
Wasteful Imitation or Productive Competition?

Several recent books have criticized the pharmaceutical industry for developing too many "follow-on" or "me-too" drugs--a name given to drugs that work the same way as pioneering drugs that create a new class of treatments. Do follow-on drugs raise costs while diverting R&D funds from true innovation, and should the FDA raise the bar for approving follow-on drugs? Or are these drugs just competition at work, generating lower prices and better products? These and other questions will be addressed by a panel that will include a presentation by Joseph A. DiMasi--of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development--who has just completed a new study with colleague Cherie Paquette on "The Economics of Follow-on Drug Research and Development: Trends in Entry Rates and the Timing of Development." The study was recently published in PharmacoEconomics.

About the Author

 

John E.
Calfee
  • Economist John E. Calfee (1941-2011) studied the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with the economics of tobacco, tort liability, and patents. He previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics. He had also taught marketing and consumer behavior at the business schools of the University of Maryland at College Park and Boston University. While Mr. Calfee's writings are mostly on pharmaceutical markets and FDA regulation, his academic articles and opinion pieces covered a variety of topics, from patent law and tort liability to advertising and consumer information. His books include Prices, Markets, and the Pharmaceutical Revolution (AEI Press, 2000) and Biotechnology and the Patent System (AEI Press, 2007). Mr. Calfee wrote regularly for AEI's Health Policy Outlook series. He testified before Congress and federal agencies on various topics, including alcohol advertising; biodefense vaccine research; international drug prices; and FDA oversight of drug safety.

 

Scott
Gottlieb
  • Scott Gottlieb, M.D., a practicing physician, has served in various capacities at the Food and Drug Administration, including senior adviser for medical technology; director of medical policy development; and, most recently, deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs. Dr. Gottlieb has also served as a senior policy adviser at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

     

  • Phone: 202-862-5885
    Email: scott.gottlieb@aei.org
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    Name: Catherine Griffin
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    Email: catherine.griffin@aei.org
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