Pharmaceutical Drug Regulation and Mortality: Evidence from E-cigarettes. Speaker: Michael Pesko
This study evaluates drug regulation in the United States by examining a product that was unexpectedly judicially exempted from drug regulation in 2010: e-cigarettes. We compare these effects to nicotine replacement therapy, which was not exempted. Our analysis shows that this exemption led to significant increases in e-cigarette innovation, as evidenced by patent applications. Leveraging differences in smoking rates across demographic groups prior to e-cigarette introduction, we find that from 2011 to 2019, e-cigarettes saved 677,000 life-years, or approximately 1/3 the estimated benefit of early HIV/AIDS drugs through year 2000, and increased social surplus by $8 billion annually. We demonstrate that reduced smoking is a key mechanism explaining this mortality reduction, with statistically significant smoking reductions proceeding mortality reductions by approximately 4 years.
Speaker:
Michael Pesko‘s research identifies the effects of health policy changes by combining economics reasoning, causal research methods, and survey and administrative data sources. He has published 85+ peer-reviewed papers, including over 25+ e-cigarette policy evaluation papers. He has been funded as PI of multiple R01s from the National Institutes of Health and Research Scholar Grants from the American Cancer Society. His research has been awarded approximately $10 million in funding. Current research funding supports evaluating e-cigarette policies and health insurance mandates for hearing aids and cancer prevention/detection services. Dr. Pesko is also the director of the Tobacco Online Policy Seminar, a free multidisciplinary, international forum for research with tobacco policy implications using experimental or quasi-experimental study designs. He also serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics in the United States, and the Canadian Scientific Advisory Board on Vaping Products.