title: R&D investments for neglected diseases can be sensitive to the economic goal of pharmaceutical companies.
abstract: A fundamental problem with neglected diseases is how to induce pharmaceutical companies to invest resources for developing effective treatments. A recent debate focused on the role of economic incentives represented by monetary transfers to the firms. In this article I focus on the economic goals of pharmaceutical companies, as determinants for R&D effort. In particular, within a stylized framework, the work compares expected profit and expected productivity maximization, arguing that the former in general induces higher R&D investments than the latter. Therefore, as it is currently the case, when pharmaceutical firms focus on productivity, appropriate economic incentives might be needed for them to invest in R&D for neglected diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, Piazza S. Francesco 7, 53100 Siena, Italy. dimitri@unisi.it
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dimitri
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics*; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007449:Investments; D018803:Models, Economic; D058069:Neglected Diseases / Q000191:economics*