Prof. Annika Herr, together with Dr. Torben Stühmeier and Dr. Tobias Wenzel, published the paper "More cost-sharing, less cost? Evidence on reference price drugs" in the journal "Health Economics". In their study, the researchers use a difference-in-differences strategy to investigate the causal effects of a reference price reduction in Germany on prices, copayments, and overall expenditures for off-patent pharmaceuticals. They find that a reduction in reference prices decreased prices for both brand-name and generic drugs as well as an increase in co-payments, especially for branded drugs. Overall, these effects lead to significant savings savings for the public health insurer as well as for patients.
Herr, A., Stühmeier, T., & Wenzel, T. (2022). More cost-sharing, less cost? Evidence on reference price drugs. Health Economics, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4627
