Hayoung Cheon, Tong Guo, Puneet Manchanda, S. Sriram
{"title":"The Impact of Medical Marijuana Legalization on Opioid Prescriptions","authors":"Hayoung Cheon, Tong Guo, Puneet Manchanda, S. Sriram","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3917975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3917975","url":null,"abstract":"Since the late 1990s, opioids have been increasingly prescribed for pain treatment in the U.S as a result of aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies. This has resulted in more than 450,000 opioid overdose deaths since then. In the same time period, several U.S. states have legalized medical marijuana, a drug that can also be used for pain relief. As a result, medical marijuana can be used as a substitute for opioids, leading to a reduction in opioid prescriptions. On the other hand, marijuana use can lead to increased substance abuse, leading to a potential increase in opioid prescriptions. The lack of scientific and medical knowledge along with the uncertain regulatory environment vis-a-vis medical marijuana use also makes it possible that its legalization has no impact on opioid prescriptions. With claims data from a large health insurance company in the U.S. between 2006 and 2016, we study the effect of medical marijuana legalization on opioid prescriptions, leveraging the temporal variation in state-wise legalization. We find that, on average, opioid prescriptions decreased after medical marijuana legalization for all three outcome metrics that we consider (number of prescriptions, total days of supply, and total dosage in MME). We also find that the role of physicians in reducing opioid prescriptions after legalization is more prominent than their corresponding role in increasing opioid prescriptions.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"480 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123054617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La capacidad creativa en los sistemas de inteligencia artificial y sus consideraciones en el derecho de autor (Creative Capacity of Artificial Intelligence Systems and How They Are Considered by Copyright Law)","authors":"Angy Meliza Gómez Jerez","doi":"10.18601/16571959.n31.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18601/16571959.n31.11","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Spanish Abstract:</b> El debate que se concibe en este artículo gira en torno a la creación de obras por sistemas de Inteligencia Artificial (IA) y su fin es determinar si es posible que dichas creaciones puedan estar bajo el amparo de la protección de derechos de autor. Esta problemática es importante ya que son muchas las obras artísticas, como pinturas, canciones, traducciones, libros o artículos que se crean a partir del uso de la IA. Para el desarrollo de este objetivo se analizaron los componentes de una obra y, además, se evalúo si una pieza escrita por un sistema de IA cuenta con dichos requisitos1. Igualmente, se investigaron varias doctrinas y sistemas normativos internacionales que han asumido diferentes puntos de vista sobre este debate, un punto en el que se coincide es que la creatividad artificial nunca podrá equiparar a la del intelecto humano, sin embargo, el aporte que se concluye de esta investigación es que es necesario regular específicamente las obras creadas por IA. <br><br><b>English Abstract:</b> The debate conceived in this article revolves around the creation of works by artificial intelligence systems (IA). The purpose is to determine if it is possible that such creations may be protected by Copyright Law. This issue is important since there are many works, such as paintings, songs, translations, books, and articles, which are created using AI. To develop this objective, an analysis of the components of a work was carried out and, in addition, it was evaluated if a work written by an AI system has these requirements. Likewise, several of the researched doctrines and international normative systems have assumed different points of view on this debate, a point where they coincided is that artificial creativity can never equate that of the human intellect. However, the contribution that is concluded in this paper is the need create a specific regulation for works created by IA.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131683717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Responsabilidad del influenciador digital a la luz del estatuto del consumidor colombiano (Liability of the Digital Influencer under the Colombian Consumer Statute)","authors":"María Camila Molano París","doi":"10.18601/16571959.n31.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18601/16571959.n31.06","url":null,"abstract":"<b>Spanish Abstract:</b> Los influenciadores digitales se han convertido en referentes de opinión con un potencial para influir en las decisiones de consumo de sus audiencias. Por lo tanto, estos sujetos utilizan sus redes sociales digitales para difundir información espontáneamente y de manera casi imperceptible sobre productos y/o servicios propios o de un tercero. Esta dinámica, que está desafiando las formas tradicionales de publicidad, se denomina Influencer Marketing. A pesar de que dichas actuaciones constituyen una práctica cada vez más recurrente en Colombia, actualmente no hay una normativa específica que defina los parámetros de esta conducta o que delimite el alcance de su responsabilidad. En octubre de 2020 la Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio expidió una serie de recomendaciones no vinculantes orientadas a establecer una eventual responsabilidad de los influenciadores digitales bajo la normatividad vigente, particularmente a la luz del Estatuto del Consumidor. Por ello, resulta de interés puntualizar la manera en que el contenido de dicho cuerpo normativo les puede ser aplicado a las actuaciones de estos sujetos, y así llevarlos a responder a la luz del derecho del consumo.<br><br><b>English Abstract:</b> Digital influencers have become opinion referents with the potential of affecting their audiences’ consumer decisions. Hence, they use their digital social networks to spontaneously and almost unnoticeably diffuse information regarding goods or services of their own or belonging to a third party. This dynamic, defiant of traditional forms of publicity, is known as Influencer Marketing. Even though these publications issued by digital influencers constitute an increasingly recurring practice in Colombia, currently, there is no specific regulations that defines the parameters of this conduct or the scope of their liability. On October 2020, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce issued a series of non-binding recommendations that aim to establish an eventual responsibility of the digital influencers under the current regulations, particularly in light of the Consumer Statute. Therefore, it is of interest to develop how the content of said regulation may be apply to the actions of those subjects, and thus that they respond in the light of consumer law.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116075276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sherwyn D’souza, Darlene Nazareth, Cassia Vaz, Monali N. Shetty
{"title":"Blockchain and AI in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain","authors":"Sherwyn D’souza, Darlene Nazareth, Cassia Vaz, Monali N. Shetty","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3852034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3852034","url":null,"abstract":"At present, counterfeit drugs pose a serious threat as it is difficult for people to know the true value of purchased medicines due to a significant lack of transparency in the current system. Also, tampering within the supply chain is difficult to investigate when suspicion of illegal or unethical practices. Our solution is an amalgamation of two powerful technologies - Blockchain and AI. Blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can efficiently record transactions between two parties in a verifiable and permanent way. Since blockchains are decentralized, distributed, transparent, and immutable, they can easily solve counterfeit medicines. AI in pharmacology helps improve customer service, loyalty and enables easy access to blockchain-based medical intelligence. This paper proposes a system that uses blockchain and AI for the safe supply of medical drugs throughout the supply chain. Each product within the chain can be transferred between authenticated entities of the chain using an event request-response mechanism. All transactions between entities are recorded into the blockchain using smart contracts with the help of which a product can be traced to its source. We built a Rasa chatbot integrated into a Flutter app enabling ordering, tracing back medicines, and enhancing blockchain-based credit evaluation. A DApp was then developed using React Framework. The smart contracts were deployed on a local blockchain provided by Ganache. Using Web3.js and Truffle framework, DApp is connected to the blockchain. The experimental results show that our solution is feasible and comparatively more secure than existing systems.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"55 5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123439455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating Probabilities of Success of Vaccine and Other Anti-Infective Therapeutic Development Programs","authors":"A. Lo, K. W. Siah, Chi Heem Wong","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3595895","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3595895","url":null,"abstract":"A key driver in biopharmaceutical investment decisions is the probability of success of a drug development program. We estimate the probabilities of success (PoSs) of clinical trials for vaccines and other anti-infective therapeutics using 43,414 unique triplets of clinical trial, drug, and disease between January 1, 2000, and January 7, 2020, yielding 2,544 vaccine programs and 6,829 nonvaccine programs targeting infectious diseases. The overall estimated PoS for an industry-sponsored vaccine program is 39.6%, and 16.3% for an industry-sponsored anti-infective therapeutic. Among industry-sponsored vaccines programs, only 12 out of 27 disease categories have seen at least one approval, with the most successful being against monkeypox (100%), rotavirus (78.7%), and Japanese encephalitis (67.6%). The three infectious diseases with the highest PoSs for industry-sponsored nonvaccine therapeutics are smallpox (100%), cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection (31.8%), and onychomycosis (29.8%). Non-industry-sponsored vaccine and nonvaccine development programs have lower overall PoSs: 6.8% and 8.2%, respectively. Viruses involved in recent outbreaks—Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, and Zika—have had a combined total of only 45 nonvaccine development programs initiated over the past two decades, and no approved therapy to date. These estimates offer guidance both to biopharma investors as well as to policymakers seeking to identify areas most likely to be underserved by private sector engagement and in need of public sector support.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123392182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Excess Prices for Drugs in Medicare: Diagnosis and Prescription","authors":"R. Frank, R. Zeckhauser","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3116330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3116330","url":null,"abstract":"Excess prices for drugs in the U.S. is a persistently vexing policy problem. While there is agreement among most policy analysts that supra competitive prices are necessary to promote innovation; significant disagreements arise over how much pricing discretion prescription drug manufacturers should be permitted, and what portion of the sum of producer plus consumer surplus in the prescription drug market should be claimed by manufacturers relative to consumers and other payers. This analysis first diagnoses the causes of the high costs in Medicare Part D. It then makes use of that diagnosis to provide a prescription for policy measures that have the potential to simultaneously reduce these costs without significantly sacrificing incentives to bring valuable new drugs to market. This paper focuses on an extremely costly component of the Medicare Part D program, the region of coverage that kicks in once a consumer has spent $4,950 on drugs in a calendar year (roughly $8,100 in total drug spending). At that point there are high levels of insurance for the consumer and reinsurance for the prescription drug plan. Consumers pay 5% of costs; plans pay 15% and the government 80%. That design generates serious inefficiencies. The significant subsidies to plans in the reinsurance region combined with the launch of unique high cost prescription drugs could be expected to lead to and has led to substantial departures from cost-effective outcomes in treatments delivered. As would be expected, spending has been growing rapidly in this so called “reinsurance region†. What is less well known is that a small number of very high-cost drugs account for almost all of this growth. Following this diagnosis, we present two, possibly complementary, prescriptions for reducing these inefficiencies. The first follows on the MedPac recommendation that the government reduce its share of risk bearing for the Part D reinsurance benefit. The second focuses on curbing price inefficiencies for those very high-cost drugs. That prescription has two components: eliminating monopolistic overpricing, and promoting the quality of drugs brought to market. It is grounded in the economics of two part tariffs, research on innovation prizes, performance-based contracts, and draws on the mechanism design literature. Such pricing could save substantially on costs without curtailing the most important R&D efforts for pharmaceuticals. Market conditions and political forces appear ripe for significant new approaches to pricing high cost drugs in Medicare Part D. We believe that the prescription discussion here, which draws on this paper’s diagnosis, identifies some promising approaches to a vexing problem.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121696289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seyed-Reza Hashemian-Rahaghi, Cheng FanFah, F. Abed‐Ashtiani
{"title":"Production Efficiency and Financial Performance in Pharmaceutical Industry: A Case of Top 24 Companies","authors":"Seyed-Reza Hashemian-Rahaghi, Cheng FanFah, F. Abed‐Ashtiani","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3437210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3437210","url":null,"abstract":"Contributing to the field of medicine, pharmaceutical industry plays a key role in development of the society’s health, an extremely important social and economic asset. Current study is of crucial importance as it applied data envelopment analysis and traditional accounting indicators to measure the production efficiency and financial performance of top 24 pharmaceutical producers over five years (2011-2015). Based on the results, major portion of the tested companies showed production efficiencies and profitability positions below the industry average. Overall liquidity and asset utilization position of the industry also was not satisfying. Only two companies i.e. Novo Nordisk, a company from Denmark, and Gilead Sciences, an American company, indicated overall pleasing financial and efficiency performances. Allergan, an American company, revealed lower financial and efficiency results than other pharmaceutical producers. Japanese companies notably Takeda showed no satisfying results particularly in terms of profitability. Bayer, a company from Germany revealed better efficiency performance than its compatriot, Merck-KGaA. Comparing two Swiss companies, Roche outpaced Novartis. AbbVie and GlaxoSmithKline needed to reduce their extensive reliance on debt financing. Financial results of AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Pfizer, Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers-Squib, and Teva were below the industry average. Amgen showed an extensive cash tied up in non-productive assets.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"236 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122924720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eva Ranehill, N. Zethraeus, Liselott Blomberg, B. Schoultz, A. Hirschberg, M. Johannesson, Anna Dreber
{"title":"Hormonal Contraceptives Do Not Impact Economic Preferences: Evidence from a Randomized Trial","authors":"Eva Ranehill, N. Zethraeus, Liselott Blomberg, B. Schoultz, A. Hirschberg, M. Johannesson, Anna Dreber","doi":"10.1287/MNSC.2017.2844","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/MNSC.2017.2844","url":null,"abstract":"A growing body of correlational studies suggests that sex hormones such as those contained in, or affected by, oral contraceptives (OCs) may impact economic behavior. However, despite widespread use of OCs among women in Western countries, little is known about their potential behavioral effects. The present study investigates whether OCs causally influence economic preferences. We randomly allocate 340 women aged 18–35 to three months of a widely used OC or placebo treatment. At the end of treatment, we conduct an economic experiment measuring altruism, financial risk taking, and willingness to compete. The statistical power is 80% to detect an effect size equal to a Cohen’s d of 0.30 at the 5% level. We find no significant effects of OCs on any of the measured preferences, indicating that this widely used OC treatment, commonly used throughout the world, does not significantly affect the measured economic preferences. Further, we find no relation between menstrual cycle phase and economic preferences in...","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126834637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Maternal Education Affect Childhood Immunization Rates? Evidence from Turkey","authors":"Mustafa Ozer, J. Fidrmuc, M. A. Eryurt","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2976278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2976278","url":null,"abstract":"We study the causal effect of maternal education on childhood immunization rates. We use the Compulsory Education Law (CEL) of 1997, and the differentiation in its implementation across regions, as instruments for schooling of young mothers in Turkey. The CEL increased the compulsory years of schooling of those born after 1986 from 5 to 8 years. We find that education of mothers increases the probability of completing the full course of DPT and Hepatitis B vaccinations for their children. Furthermore, education increases the age of first marriage and birth, changes women`s and their spouse’s labour market status, and significantly affects women`s attitude towards spousal violence against women and gender discrimination in a manner that empowers women.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131121755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Timely, Cheap, or Risk Free? The Effect of Regulation on the Price and the Availability of New Drugs","authors":"Rosella Levaggi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2955133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2955133","url":null,"abstract":"The market for innovative drugs is characterised by a high level of regulation, whose impact on the market is not neutral. Strict regulation may in fact adversely affect incentives to develop new and better products; on the other hand high prices may drive an unsustainable increase of healthcare cost. This trade off is particularly important in Europe where about 75% of drugs cost are financed by the public sector. Uncertainty in the listing process as well as other forms of price regulation may lead to a fairer division of the social value between patents and the industry, but at the cost of leaving some of the potential value of the drug unexploited. In this article we show the impact of different pricing rules on the price and the availability of new drugs.","PeriodicalId":227517,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Prescription Drugs & Antibiotics (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130703684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}