Acme Pharmaceutical Company discovers a vaccine that prevents the common cold and has a patent that grants it a monopoly on this drug. Acme has plants in both the North America and Europe and can manufacture the drug on either continent at a marginal cost of $10. Assume there are no fixed costs. In Europe, the demand for the drug is QE 70 - PE, where Qe is the quantity demanded when the price in Europe is PE. In North America the demand for the drug is 110 — PN, where QN is the quantity demanded when the price in North America is PN E QN =
Acme Pharmaceutical Company discovers a vaccine that prevents the common cold and has a patent that grants it a monopoly on this drug. Acme has plants in both the North America and Europe and can manufacture the drug on either continent at a marginal cost of $10. Assume there are no fixed costs. In Europe, the demand for the drug is QE 70 - PE, where Qe is the quantity demanded when the price in Europe is PE. In North America the demand for the drug is 110 — PN, where QN is the quantity demanded when the price in North America is PN E QN =
Chapter1: Making Economics Decisions
Section: Chapter Questions
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Transcribed Image Text:2. Acme Pharmaceutical Company discovers a vaccine that prevents the
common cold and has a patent that grants it a monopoly on this
drug. Acme has plants in both the North America and Europe and
can manufacture the drug on either continent at a marginal cost of
$10. Assume there are no fixed costs. In Europe, the demand for the
drug is QE = 70 - PE, where QE is the quantity demanded when the
price in Europe is PE. In North America the demand for the drug is
QN 110 PN, where QN is the quantity demanded when the price
in North America is PN
=

Transcribed Image Text:(d) Calculate total surplus, which is consumer plus producer sur-
plus/profits, under each scenario b) and c). Will total surplus be
higher with price discrimination or without price discrimination?
Will the firm sell the drug on both continents in both scenarios?
(e) Consider the problem with the following change. Suppose the
demand for the drug in Europe declines to QE = 30 - PE. If the
firm cannot price discriminate, now will it be in the firms interest
to sell on both continents?
(f) Say now that the patent on the vaccine expires and generic manu-
facturers can enter the market and produce the drug at the same
marginal cost. Assume that there are many generic drug compa-
nies, and that competition is very high. What will be the equilib-
rium price of the drug in this case? Compute total consumer and
producer surplus/profits in both markets in this case and compare
it to d). Comment on the differences.
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