Pricing and Patents of HIV/AIDS Drugs in Developing Countries

Joan-Ramon Borrell (1)

1 Dep. de Política Económica

This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of patents on drug prices across developing countries. It uses sales data on HIV/AIDS drugs in a sample of 34 low and middle-income countries between 1995 and mid-2000. The main findings are that patents do shift drug prices up, that drug prices are correlated to per capita income levels, and that drug firms follow a skimming strategy when pricing new HIV/AIDS drugs. That is, there is across country and intertemporal price discrimination in the global drug markets.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Joan-Ramon Borrell. Pricing and Patents of HIV/AIDS Drugs in Developing Countries. Applied Economics, 2007, 39 (04), pp.505-518. ⟨10.1080/00036840500438954⟩. ⟨hal-00581931⟩