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  • Forthcoming
  • Article
  • American Economic Review: Insights

Internal Deadlines, Drug Approvals, and Safety Problems

By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Danielle Li
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

Absent explicit quotas, incentives, reporting, or fiscal year-end motives, drug approvals around the world surge in December, at month-ends, and before respective major national holidays. Drugs approved before these informal deadlines are associated with significantly more adverse effects, including more hospitalizations, life-threatening incidents, and deaths—particularly, drugs most rushed through the approval process. These patterns are consistent with a model in which regulators rush to meet internal production benchmarks associated with salient calendar periods: this “desk-clearing” behavior results in more lax review, leading both to increased output and increased safety issues at particular—and predictable—periodicities over the year.

Keywords

Health; Economics; Government and Politics; Innovation and Invention; Research; Science; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Citation

Cohen, Lauren, Umit Gurun, and Danielle Li. "Internal Deadlines, Drug Approvals, and Safety Problems." American Economic Review: Insights (forthcoming).
  • SSRN

About The Author

Lauren H. Cohen

Finance
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC? By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger
  • From GOP to NFT: Anthony Scaramucci and the Launch of Flatter NFT By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel and Grace Headinger
  • Reclaiming the Land of Purple: Purpl’s Mission to Unlock Finance in Lebanon By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger
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