Addressing incentive-driven prescribing

Abstract

Market failures in health care¹ thrive on conflict of
interest. Take the example of market failure due to
“information discrepancy” between doctors and patients.
This uneven knowledge is the basis for exploitation by the
alliance between the health technology industry and
medical profession an alliance fraught with conflict of
interest. Patients pay the cost through their health and
money.
Whereas market failures are well established and wellstudied
phenomenon in health economics and health
care literature, there is a weak research base, including in
Pakistan, for conflict of interest in health care despite its
characterization as “an invisible force shaping health
systems and policies”.² It “remain(s) a global issue that is
neglected, underestimated, and overlooked by health
policy makers and researchers”.

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