Regulation and Pricing of Pharmaceuticals: Reference Pricing or Price Cap Regulation?

We study the relationship between regulatory regimes and pharmaceutical firms’ pricing strategies using a unique policy experiment from Norway, which in 2003 introduced a reference price (RP) system called “index pricing” for a sub-sample of off-patent pharmaceuticals, replacing the existing price cap (PC) regulation. We estimate the effect of the reform using a product level panel dataset, covering the drugs exposed to RP and a large number of drugs still under PC regulation in the time before and after the policy change. Our results show that RP significantly reduces both brand-name and generic prices within the reference group, with the effect being stronger for brand-names. We also identify a negative cross-price effect on therapeutic substitutes not included in the RP-system. In terms of policy implications, the results suggest that RP is more effective than PC regulation in lowering drug prices, while the cross-price effect raises a concern about patent protection.pharmaceuticals, price regulation, branded-generic competition

Regulation and Pricing of Pharmaceuticals: Reference Pricing or Price Cap Regulation?

We study the relationship between regulatory regimes and pharmaceutical firms’ pricing strategies using a unique policy experiment from Norway, which in 2003 introduced a reference price (RP) system called “index pricing” for a sub-sample of off-patent pharmaceuticals, replacing the existing price cap (PC) regulation. We estimate the effect of the reform using a product level panel dataset, covering the drugs exposed to RP and a large number of drugs still under PC regulation in the time before and after the policy change. Our results show that RP significantly reduced both brand-name and generic prices within the reference group, with the effect being stronger for brand-names. We also identify a negative cross-price effect on therapeutic substitutes not included in the RP-system. In terms of policy implications, the results suggest that RP is more effective than PC regulation in lowering drug prices, while the cross-price effect raises a concern about patent protection.Pharmaceuticals; Price Regulation; Branded-Generic competition.

Nonlinear equations for p-adic open, closed, and open-closed strings

We investigate the structure of solutions of boundary value problems for a one-dimensional nonlinear system of pseudodifferential equations describing the dynamics (rolling) of p-adic open, closed, and open-closed strings for a scalar tachyon field using the method of successive approximations. For an open-closed string, we prove that the method converges for odd values of p of the form p=4n+1 under the condition that the solution for the closed string is known. For p=2, we discuss the questions of the existence and the nonexistence of solutions of boundary value problems and indicate the possibility of discontinuous solutions appearing.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Nonlocal Dynamics of p-Adic Strings

We consider the construction of Lagrangians that might be suitable for describing the entire $p$-adic sector of an adelic open scalar string. These Lagrangians are constructed using the Lagrangian for $p$-adic strings with an arbitrary prime number $p$. They contain space-time nonlocality because of the d'Alembertian in argument of the Riemann zeta function. We present a brief review and some new results.Comment: 8 page

Genomic data of different resolutions reveal consistent inbreeding estimates but contrasting homozygosity landscapes for the threatened Aotearoa New Zealand hihi

Inbreeding can lead to a loss of heterozygosity in a population and when combined with genetic drift may reduce the adaptive potential of a species. However, there is uncertainty about whether resequencing data can provide accurate and consistent inbreeding estimates. Here, we performed an in-depth inbreeding analysis for hihi (Notiomystis cincta), an endemic and nationally vulnerable passerine bird of Aotearoa New Zealand. We first focused on subsampling variants from a reference genome male, and found that low-density data sets tend to miss runs of homozygosity (ROH) in some places and overestimate ROH length in others, resulting in contrasting homozygosity landscapes. Low-coverage resequencing and 50 K SNP array densities can yield comparable inbreeding results to high-coverage resequencing approaches, but the results for all data sets are highly dependent on the software settings employed. Second, we extended our analysis to 10 hihi where low-coverage whole genome resequencing, RAD-seq and SNP array genotypes are available. We inferred ROH and individual inbreeding to evaluate the relative effects of sequencing depth versus SNP density on estimating inbreeding coefficients and found that high rates of missingness downwardly bias both the number and length of ROH. In summary, when using genomic data to evaluate inbreeding, studies must consider that ROH estimates are heavily dependent on analysis parameters, data set density and individual sequencing depth