Market Economy and China

¶ … Market forces have helped to shape the development of the modern medical system. Yet each nation manages these market forces to their own needs -- some systems remove medicine almost entirely from the market, while others only have limited government intervention. This article represents a preliminary exploration of the concepts that were first identified thirty years ago in the works of Heggenhougen (1984) and Dewalt (1986). These authors laid the foundation for the study of how the market economy has influenced the development of health care around the world.

The influence of the market economy has in particular been felt in the realm of drug development, and that is the area where the present study will focus. Building on these early works, the present study will examine drug development processes in different nations around the world, in particular examining the juxtaposition between drug development in the United States, versus the authoritarian regime in China, versus drug development programs in the former Soviet Union. It is hypothesized that each of these three systems will share some similarities, but the differences with respect to areas such as financing and the regulatory environment will result in differences in drug development outcomes. The nature of those differences will be explored, including lessons learned from the outcomes of these three distinct drug development regimes, each based on different market systems.

A Written Memo to Employees at Work

First, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your tireless efforts this past quarter. We have accomplished most of our goals, and now are laying out a strategy to help us achieve our year-end strategic objectives.

One of the most significant initiatives of this quarter will be to conduct an economic analysis of different pharmaceutical regimes. We believe that this effort will help us to formulate our own policies going forward with respect to drug production, global pricing as well as our distribution and licensing strategy.

The core concept is going to examine the drug development regimes in the U.S., modern China and the USSR of the 70s and 80s. This study is expected to take until mid-December and produce insights that will help us with our strategic decision-making going forward.

Each person who will be involved with the project will receive a briefing by the end of business on Thursday outlining their role in the project. For some, your role will be to focus on this project primarily. In those cases, accommodations have been made to shift some of your responsibilities to others within the company so that you may give this initiative your utmost focus over the coming weeks.

The following text will outline this project in greater detail. If you have any questions about the project, or your involvement in it, please contact the appropriate Project Manager.

Letter to Community Organization

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read over this proposal. We understand that you have limited resources but we genuinely believe that your input into our project can prove valuable.

The project is an examination of different drug development regimes -- that of the modern U.S., modern China and the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s. We believe that by gaining a greater understanding into these three very different systems, we can gain insight into how to develop a better drug development system for our own country today.