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- Ekelund, Mats
(författare)
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Competition and innovation in the Swedish pharmaceutical market
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four essays in economics related to the pharmaceutical market. The first essay, Pharmaceutical Pricing in a Regulated Market, compares the pricing of new pharmaceuticals in the Swedish market where prices are regulated, with the results of Lu and Comanor who studied the pricing of new pharmaceuticals in the US market. The results indicate that price regulation discourages the use of penetration strategies and decreases price competition between brand name drugs. The second essay, Innovativeness and Market Shares in the Pharmaceutical Industry, analyzes the pharmaceutical market in a model of horizontal and vertical product differentiation. The implications from the model are tested on data from the Swedish pharmaceutical market. Vertically differentiated drugs are found to gain larger market shares, command higher prices, and be less sensitive to substitutes than drugs that are only horizontally differentiated. The third essay, Generic entry before and after reference prices, examines the effect of the reference pricing system on generic entry in markets where brand name pharmaceuticals lose patent protection. The main result is that savings due to increased competition in markets affected by the reference pricing system may have been outbalanced by higher prices due to less competition in markets where the reference pricing system led to deterred entry. The fourth essay, Innovative Drugs and the Increase in Pharmaceutical Expenditures, seeks to establish the most important factors behind the growth in pharmaceutical expenditures. One important conjecture is that the change in the drug price index has little impact on the rate at which pharmaceutical expenditures grow. Instead, the introduction of new innovative drugs seems to be the most important driving force of the growth in pharmaceutical expenditures.
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| 2. |
- Mamboya, Florence Alex, 1971-
(författare)
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Heavy metal contamination and toxicity : Studies of Macroalgae from the Tanzanian Coast
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Concentrations of various metals are elevated above background levels in several intertidal areas along the Tanzanian coasts. However, there is little available information concerning the toxicity of these metals and how the uptake of these metals by bioindicators are influenced by external factors, such as heavy rains and increased coastal eutrophication, which tend to fluctuate.The present study focused on the uptake and toxicity of Cu and Zn in two common macroalgal species, Padina gymnospora (Phaeophyta) and Ulva reticulata (Chlorophyta). Laboratory studies were performed where metal content, growth (DGR), maximal quantum yields (Fv/Fm) and protein expression patterns (in Ulva) were measured as a response to exposure to Cu and Zn. The levels of metals accumulated in algal tissues correlated well to exposure concentrations and the longer the exposure time, the greater the uptake. However, an increased nutrient load (tested on Padina) or dilution of the seawater (tested on Ulva) affected both uptake of metals and their toxic effects. Here, DGR was more affected than Fv/Fm, suggesting DGR to be the more sensitive indicator of Cu and Zn toxicity. As shown by 2-D gel electrophoresis, more than ten proteins were up-regulated in U. reticulata after being exposed to Cu (1μg/L), while at higher concentrations (10 and 100 μg/L) of Cu numerous proteins were down-regulated.P. gymnospora was also used as a bioindicator to monitor long-term (1994–2005) and seasonal in-year variations in heavy metal concentrations in the Zanzibar Channel. No clear overall trends were revealed, but analysis of the combined dataset clearly pinpointed the most contaminated sites. It was concluded that seasonal and long-term variations, as well as environmental conditions need to be taken into consideration when using macroalgae as bioindicators.
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