Up to this point we have considered solely the data required to examine the efficient use of pharma-ceutical resources within the health care system. It is however, also important to monitor and take into account data on the pharmaceutical industry, which in many countries forms a significant part of the manufacturing sector and as such contributes to a country’s overall economy. Successful development and maintenance of a domestic pharmaceutical industry can have a very positive effect on a country’s trade surplus, particularly in terms of foreign earnings and balance of trade. The interest of the health sector in regulating pharmaceutical expenditure, prices and profits may therefore have to be balanced judiciously against national economic interests. The latter will comprise the need to provide sufficient incentives and opportunities to preserve and develop an industry with a solid financial base, capable of effective innovation and sustained growth in the long-term.
Data are therefore required to calculate the contribution of this industry to the economy as a whole.
This will include monitoring the industry’s trade surplus, the volume of exports and the number of people employed. It is also important to monitor the investment of the pharmaceutical industry in R&D projects both in its own laboratories and externally at universities and clinics, or through other joint ventures such as those with biotech companies. Successful innovation can be monitored through the level of patenting and the success in commercialising innovative technologies. Finally, data on the environment in which the pharmaceutical industry is operating can be relevant; they will include figures and information on the availability of resources, the presence of related and supporting industries, and the availability of skilled labour. All these various forms of information will contribute to a view on the achievements and prospects of the national pharmaceutical industry, and the extent to which its interests should counterbalance those of containing pharmaceutical expenditure.
One of the best sources of data on the national pharmaceutical industry is usually the national indus-try association. National associations of pharmaceutical manufacturers publish in their annual reports numerous facts and figures which are intended to promote the industry, but which can be valuable in assessing its situation. Commercial databases such as Datastream or those compiled by the IMS contain company-specific financial and commercial data. Annual reports from individual companies are also use-ful. Other industry specific information available in publications such as thePanorama of EU Industry published by the Eurostat, the statistical office of the European communities, and reports issued by the European and International Federations of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations. However, with all of these aforementioned data sources, there is really no way to verify its validity.
7. Conclusion
This chapter has focused on the types of data needed to develop and monitor drug policies. Whether using data on drug expenditure, utilisation, price, health outcomes or on the pharmaceutical industry
there are a number of common issues which should be taken into consideration particularly when making regional or international comparisons. It is important to be on the lookout for those characteristics of the pharmaceutical scene that are inevitably unique to each country, and to take them into account so that they do not invalidate comparisons. As pointed out in Section 3 above, for example, comparisons should be made using a common unit of measurement, matched samples and data from the same point in the drug distribution chain. In the past, too, bias has been introduced into some comparisons because of the limited availability and dissemination of good quality data on prices, volumes and outcomes outcome data. It is important that these and other possible sources of error raised in this chapter be addressed if data are to be obtained and used effectively to monitor and inform future policy development.
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