CHARACTERIZING INFORMATIONAL BARRIERS TO ENTRY IN THE ANTI-ULCER DRUG MARKET

We empirically quantify and characterize informational barriers to entry into the anti-ulcer drug market by studying the diffusion process of the molecule Omeprazole in the first 30 months after it entered the market. Using a novel panel dataset tracking doctors' complete prescription histories, we specify and estimate a learning model in which doctors, initially uncertain about the quality differential between Omeprazole and the incumbent molecules, update their beliefs about this differential from first-hand experience after observing noisy signals from patients to whom they have prescribed the molecule. We find strong evidence that doctors' uncertainty about Omeprazole's quality is resolved by first-hand experience rather than through the pharmaceutical companies' marketing activities, so that learning through first-hand experience explains almost all of Omeprazole's diffusion path over our three-year sample period. This casts some doubt on previous researchers' findings, utilizing aggregate data, regarding the importance of marketing in securing market share for an entrant brand.pharmaceutical industry, barriers to entry, simulated maximum likelihood, diffusion models