Drug Diffusion Through Peer Networks: The Influence of Industry Payments / Leila Agha, Dan Zeltzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agha, Leila.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Zeltzer, Dan.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26338.

NBER working paper series no. w26338

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Drug Diffusion Through Peer Networks

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

Pharmaceutical companies market to physicians through individual detailing accompanied by monetary or in-kind transfers. Large compensation payments to a small number of physicians account for most of this promotional spending. Studying US promotional payments and prescriptions for anticoagulant drugs, we investigate how peer influence broadens the payments' reach. Following a compensation payment, prescriptions for the marketed drug increase by both the paid physician and the paid physician's peers. Payments increase prescriptions to both recommended and contraindicated patients. Over three years, marketed anticoagulant prescriptions rose 23 percent due to payments, with peer spillovers contributing a quarter of the increase.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2019.