Pharmaceutical innovation: impact on expenditure and outcomes and subsequent challenges for pharmaceutical policy, with a special reference to Greece.

Over the recent decades, advances in healthcare technology have led to significant improvements in the quality of healthcare and in population health. At the same time, technological change in healthcare, rising national income and expansion of insurance coverage have been acknowledged as the main determinants of the historical growth in health spending in industrialized countries. The pharmaceutical sector is of particular interest as it constitutes a market characterized by rapid technological change and high expenditure growth rates. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of research findings on the impact of pharmaceutical innovation on pharmaceutical expenditure growth, total health expenditure and population health outcomes and to bring forward the challenges that arise for pharmaceutical policy in Greece.