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· ~ ~ ~ ~
Enhancing Our Economy
The previous chapter described some direct threats to the health of the
American people and showed how these threats might be reduced by action for
global health. This chapter shows how the U.S. economy may also benefit from
the nation's active investment in solving global health problems. By investing in
the health of other populations, the United States is investing in their economic
development too, and therefore in its future trading partners.
The discussion focuses on the pharmaceutical, vaccine, and medical devices
industries, the biggest stakeholders in the global health-related economy. The
incentives for these industries to develop global markets are increasing, but the
constraints are formidable. Possible steps for overcoming these constraints are
outlined.
Four of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical producers con-
trol 40 percent of the world market.
_
A MARKET WITH UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL
The global market for pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical devices is a
large one. Expenditure on pharmaceuticals was $220 billion, or $40 per capita, in
1992, while expenditures on vaccines were about $2 billion and those for medical
devices and equipment were about $71 billion (Ballance et al., 19929. In this global
market, the share of the developing countries is surprisingly significant. In 1992,
for all developing countries combined, the public and private sectors together spent
$44 billion. This amount represented 10-30 percent of public-sector recurrent costs
in developing countries, second only to expenditures on health personnel. In
industrial countries, by comparison, drugs and vaccines represent 5-20 percent of
health care spending.
Innovation, rather than price, is the principal determinant of competitive
advantage in the pharmaceutical industry (OTA, 1996~. Because of its strong base
in science and technology, the United States therefore has significant international
strengths. It invests more in R&D than other countries. It also has more new drugs
under development than its parkers, at an estimated cost per new drug developed
of $310-$500 million (DiMasi, 1995; OTA, 1996) Yet despite these strengths in
35
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36
AMERICA 'S VITAL INTERESTIN GLOBAL HEALTH
innovation, the U.S. share of the market in developing countries is surprisingly
small. In 1988, 15 countries accounted for 90 percent of pharmaceutical exports,
with the European Union providing about 75 percent of all drugs exported to
developing countries. North American industry represented only 13 percent of the
global pharmaceutical export market in 1990.
The introduction of new drugs and vaccines in developing
countries will be dependent on the pharmaceutical and
vaccine industries in the industrial countries.
In developing countries, the domestic pharmaceuticals industry is
comparatively small and faces significant constraints on its growth. These
constraints include a relative lack of infrastructure and capacity for R&D and
import restrictions on raw materials (Ballance et al., 1992; IOM, 1979~. With the
exception of China, no developing country is self-suff~cient in essential
pharmaceuticals. It is estimated that as many as 2.5 billion people have little or no
regular access to essential drugs (UNDP, 1991~.
Thus, for the foreseeable future, the introduction of new drugs and vaccines in
developing countries will be dependent on the pharmaceutical and vaccine
industries in the United States and other industrial countries. Moreover, it is likely
that the rising costs of R&D will require these companies to pursue growth in
emerging markets as aggressively as possible (Ballance et al., 1992~. Yet
significant political and regulatory constraints currently deter the industrial
countries from developing products that might primarily benefit developing
countries.
LACK OF ECONOMIC INCENTIVES
The diseases that currently dominate the needs of developing countries-
including tuberculosis, malaria, and acute respiratory infections- remain relatively
neglected by the pharmaceuticals industry. For example, in the world today, there
are 225 million new cases of malaria each year and the death toll among children is
approaching 1 million (WHO, 1996a). Yet it is the board's understanding that not a
single major Western pharmaceutical company is now developing new drugs for
the disease. The question is how to make it economically feasible for the best of
American science, technology, and industry to address major global health
problems and to enable U.S. industry to profit, rather than suffer losses, by that
engagement (see, for example, IOM, 1996c).
Not a single major Western pharmaceutical company is
now developing new drugs for malaria.
The disincentives to investment are serious. For many diseases primarily
affecting people in developing countries, R&D investments cannot be returned with
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ENHANCING OUR ECONOMY
37
the current average patent life of nine years in the pharmaceutical industry. New
incentives are therefore clearly needed to enable industry to develop and market the
drugs needed in developing countries; some options are discussed below.
There is a vital caveat, however. It will be essential to institute effective
safeguards against medically detrimental or unethical commercial activities in
developing countries for example, dumping of pharmaceuticals of questionable
safety or effectiveness; emphasizing short-term financial gains that, in the longer
term, weaken target countries and local communities; or exporting medical
interventions that are economically or culturally inappropriate for the intended
recipients.
OPTIONS FOR INCREASING INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTS FOR
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Multitiered Pricing. Multitiered pricing the selling of a product for
different prices in different markets-will be essential if vaccines and drugs that
are expensive to manufacture are to be made available to the vast majority of
people in the developing countries. In the case of vaccines, multitiered pricing
has enabled the poorest countries to receive vaccines at close to the marginal
cost of production. This has enabled more than 80 percent of the world's
children to be vaccinated against the major childhood infections each year, up
from 5 percent in 1974 (WHO, 1996b). The resulting reduction in the prevalence
of these infectious diseases in developing regions has not only brought benefits
to their own populations, but significantly reduced the health threat to the
industrial countries from imported cases.
European manufacturers, and some U.S. companies prior to 1982, tendered
bids to UNICEF's vaccine program to supply vaccines at a low price for use in
the poorest developing countries. In congressional hearings in 1982 concerning
federal and state expenditures for the purchase of children's vaccines, however,
the U.S. vaccine industry was savaged for allegedly subsidizing vaccines for the
poor children of the world by charging high costs to U.S. families and taxpayers
(U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Investigations and General Oversight, 1982~. As
a result, U.S. vaccine manufacturers have declined to tender bids to UNICEF
ever since.
However, a recent study by Mercer Associates for UNICEF indicated that
the criticisms leveled at the U.S. vaccine manufacturers in 1982 were
unwarranted (UNICEF, 1994~. The report pointed out that vaccines would have
been developed and produced to protect American children, regardless of
international needs. Further, the report found that it was the excess capacity in
the vaccine industry that enabled global manufacturers to provide sufficient
vaccines to UNICEF at marginal cost and for marginal profits.
The withdrawal of U.S. companies from the VNICEF purchasing scheme
has not only deprived the industry of the chance to contribute to a dramatic
reduction in child mortality, but has also caused a loss of comparative advantage
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AMERICA '5 VITAL INTERESTIN GLOBAL HEALTH
in the global marketplace and has limited the industry's strategic options. For
example, the continued use of multitiered pricing has enabled European
manufacturers to price products in their core markets to cover the full cost of
production, investments in R&D, marketing, and all overhead costs, while also
allowing them to sell large volumes of low-price vaccines to the poorest
countries of the world. These global sales have, in turn, enabled manufacturers to
take advantage of economies of scale in production and for the cost per dose. As
the Mercer study points out, because vaccine production is a fixed-cost business,
revenue from each additional dose sold at a price above the marginal cost
directly contributes to profits. The ability to pursue multitiered pricing
strengthens the competitiveness of national industries, provides adequate
prices and thus revenues for product innovation, and allows manufacturers to
sell higher volumes at a lower per-unit cost.
There is clearly a need for new incentives to enable
industry to develop and market drugs needed in
developing countries.
The board, therefore, believes that there is a need for the United States to
reconsider the issue of multitiered pricing for vaccines and drugs to enable U.S.
manufacturers to compete in the global market, and to allow them to make
available the products of the scientific advances achieved in this country to as
many people around the world as possible.
Intellectual Property Rights and the Problem of Piracy. Intellectual
property rights are critical to the pharmaceutical and vaccine industries, which
invest heavily in R&D for their continued profitability. National failure to respect
and enforce intellectual property rights leads to the pirating of drugs, vaccines, and
medical devices, a phenomenon that is estimated to cost the global industry some
$12 billion a year.
Piracy constitutes a major disincentive to U.S. industry to provide scientific
and medical products to certain countries with enormous health needs, such as
China and India. Although several countries have indicated a desire to join the
World Trade Organization and a willingness to respect intellectual property
conventions, government subsidization of local industries that violate those
conventions continues to discourage greater engagement of the U.S.
pharmaceutical, vaccine, and medical devices sectors. While there is a requirement
for compliance with intellectual property rights to obtain membership in the World
Trade Organization, there remains an urgent need to prevent piracy through better
surveillance mechanisms and international law.
In addition to piracy, there are two other major disincentives to the sale of
products to developing countries by U.S. manufacturers. These are parallel and
reverse trade, in which drugs sold by a company to a country at an agreed price are
resold-back to the country of manufacture or to a third country at a different
price that competes with the same drug in those markets and siphons off the
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ENHANCING OUR ECONOMY
39
manufacturer's rightful profits. Recent estimates indicate that parallel trade from a
single country in Europe cost the seven leading drug manufacturers $300 million in
1996 (The Economist, 19969. Appropriate mechanisms to prevent such abuses-
and sanctions to enforce them need to be created.
Public-Private Cooperation. It is recognized that the private sector alone
may not be able to develop products for all health needs. Joint efforts between the
public and private sectors to research, manufacture, and field test limited numbers
of new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and other products for significant and
neglected health problems of developing countries must be encouraged. Such joint
ventures would reduce costs and increase benefits to manufacturers in industrial
and developing countries and the populations they serve. Use of rotating funds,
long-term loans at favorable rates from the World Bank and regional development
banks, and mechanisms for facilitating currency conversions and recycling could be
valuable in ensuring markets for such products. Guaranteeing such markets could
provide a greater incentive for a company to pursue R&D in the health
technologies needed for global disease prevention and control (IOM, 1996c).
Where markets for drugs relevant to diseases prevalent in developing countries-
such as malaria, TB, and AIDS-cannot provide sufficient returns to justify
development of drugs arid vaccines, the possibilities for extending patent life In
special circumstances should also be considered.
Harmonization of Regulatory Standards. The efforts of the International
Congress of Harmonization to establish standard regulations on quality control,
quality assurance, good manufacturing practices, and practices for animal and
human testing should be accelerated. Success in these efforts will ultimately mean
that a new drug meeting these guidelines can be safely licensed In any county of
the world.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENHANCING OUR ECONOMY
The U.S. government should take steps to increase incentives for the
pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical device industries to invest in R&D on
products that would benefit primarily poor populations. This investment is likely
to increase returns to the industry as well as improving the long-term health and
economic growth of future trading partners. Suggested incentives include:
· allowing multitiered pricing of drugs and vaccines
· safeguarding intellectual property rights
. increasing the incentives for product development for example, by
extending patents
. forging public-/private-sector partnerships to develop certain essential
products for the needs of the poorest populations where necessary.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
industrial countries
