| Transaction cost economics is a very powerful means of explaining the way in which medical drugs are regulated. The present paper tries to validate the currently more homogeneous way in which pharmaceutical authorities are regulating the commercialisation and the consumption of medical drugs in various countries. Homogeneous groups of drugs are those that are regulated in a very similar way. Disease and drug characteristics are used as a tool for observing the convergence of drug regulations across countries. To verify this hypothesis we have used a factorial analysis to synthesize the regulatory rules for each country and for all the drugs used within the sample. Then, a cluster analysis was carried on to group drugs with similar regulatory characteristics. Finally, in each country, a linear regression was run to confirm the influences of transactional characteristics (medical values are used for this valuation from the data base FEDRA: Farmacovigilancia espanola, datos de reacciones adversas, associated to WHO) into the regulatory rules for each drug. The results show that the specificity of assets, the frequency and uncertainty are the transactional characteristics leads authorities to regulate drugs used for AIDS, Cancer and Central Nervous System diseases in a different fashion. The first two groups are those with a more difficult regulation (hierarchy-like regulation) for commercialisation and consumption activities, the last one is treated with a more 'relaxed' regulation (market-like regulation). However there are groups of drugs in between (hybrid-like regulation) with more flexible regulatory forms. In both countries, with some differences because of the specificity of regulatory systems, this relationship holds. |
