口服降血糖藥品市場之品牌、通路與價格之關係研究

Abstract

本論文之研究目的在探討藥品價格與品牌、通路之關係。研究結果發現，品牌藥的平均價格均高於學名藥，且在專利期內的品牌藥可以享有較高的售價。雖然從文獻回顧中得知，某些品牌藥在學名藥上市後反而調升其價格，因為他們認為學名藥出現後仍會使用品牌藥的醫師具有品牌忠誠度，因此調升價格反而可以爲藥廠賺取更大的獲利。但是這樣的情形並沒有在本研究資料中觀察到。實際上，現今藥品市場非常競爭，加上醫療政策偏向成本導向，醫師的品牌忠誠度很難維持。隨著環境越來越競爭，品牌藥面臨學名藥的威脅時，也開始對價格敏感。除非品牌藥推出新一代藥物來對抗學名藥的進入，否則，品牌藥是無法靠著醫師的忠誠度來維持價格。至於通路價格上，品牌藥在三個通路間的價格並無統計上的差異，學名藥亦同，這是由於資料的限制，無法取得藥品實際交易價格，唯一可取得的資料只有健保給付價之故。分析價格與品牌、通路的線性關係，發現價格與品牌、通路有線性關係。由於這幾年健保局分別有指標性的政策實施，因此也將政策實施前後的因素考量進去後，發現價格與政策沒有線性關係存在，主要是由於2002年的總額預算或是2004年的自主管理政策實施的時間都還不夠長，所以仍不足以反映出其影響。而政策對通路的交互關係不顯著，主要是因為政策的導入是全面性而不是只在某個通路，所以對每個通路的影響是相同的，因此沒有辦法觀察出其交互影響。而在通路平均價格上，醫院通路的平均藥品價格大於診所，顯示醫院較偏好採購高價的藥品。本研究也發現，即使品牌藥在專利過期後的銷售會受到學名藥的影響，但是整體來看，以口服糖尿病藥物市場為例，不論是銷售金額或使用量，學名藥都比不過品牌藥。即使如此，學名藥的出現仍會影響品牌藥的銷售。對抗學名藥的策略大致上可分為三種：(1) 在專利到期前開發改良型的專利藥；(2) 模糊界線策略，由原廠授權學名藥銷售；(3) 將專利到期的處方藥轉換成指示用藥。提早做專利到期的產品策略規劃以及生命週期管理，並將政策與法規方面的變動融入策略規劃中，才有可能成功的抵抗學名藥的競爭。

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship among price, brand (whether it is brand drug or generic drug) and channels. The results of this study show that the average price of brand drugs is higher than generics and brand drugs with patent protection always enjoy higher price. From literature reviews, we can see that some brand drugs will raise their price after patent expiration because of band loyalty of prescribers. However, we didn’t observe this from our data. While healthcare environment is getting more and more competitive, brand loyalty is hard to maintain. Brand drugs will become price sensitive after generics’ entry. As for drug price in different channels, both brand drugs and generic drugs have no significant difference in price among three channels which are hospitals, clinics, and drug stores. This is because of the limitation of data source. The actual transaction price is confidential and the only available disclosed price data is reimbursement price issued by Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI). From liner regression analysis, we found that drug price has liner relationship with brand and channels but not significant with policy. Since the enforcement time of global budget policy in year 2002 and hospital self-management policy in 2004 is not long enough to see the impact from BNHI price. This can leave to future study when more data available on hand. Policy and channel interaction is also not significant because policy impacts on all channels equally, therefore, no interaction can be found. Although sales of brand drugs will be affected by generics’ entry, brand drugs still account for over 70% market share comparing with generics in value and DDDs (defined daily dose). However, anti-generic is still very important for brand drug marketers. Three main strategies for anti-generics are: (1) to develop new generation drugs before old drug out of patent; (2) to blur the lines by pseudo-generics; (3) to switch prescription drugs to OTC drugs. Brand drug marketers have to prepare earlier for anti-generics and product life cycle management. Plan strategically with consideration of policy impact and political issues, marketers will have more chances to win the battles toward generics.