EMR20: The Economics of Pharmaceuticals, Part 2
2018
In the second of two videos on the economics of the pharmaceutical industry, Professor David Cutler asks students to consider a dynamic context – one in which prices are set to consider both the cost of producing drugs and the costs of investment in R & D to find new drugs. He returns to the relationship between dollars and quantity, but in this case, distinguishes "how many pills to produce" from "how much should the company invest in new drugs", introducing the concept of profit and the incentives for companies to invest in R&D. He concludes by posing the question, how is a pricing decision made that allows for surplus (i.e., profit) and investment in future drugs, but is not so high that people are unable to pay for their medication? While this video focuses on the dynamic context, the first video in the two-part series considers the static context and is available below.
- EMR20: The Economics of Pharmaceuticals - Part 1 (~20 min)
- EMR20: The Economics of Pharmaceuticals - Part 2 (~9 min)
Videos prototyped and produced in collaboration with the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University (GHELI) as part of a residency in pedagogical innovation and multimodal learning.
Related Files:
Source:
Cutler D. EMR20: The Economics of Pharmaceuticals, Part 2. Video. Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University 2018; Sept. https://vimeo.com/294199936