The NBER Orange Book Dataset: A User’s Guide
This paper introduces a newly digitized, open-access version of the Food and Drug Administration’s “Orange Book”—a linkage between approved small-molecule drugs and the patents that protect them. The Orange Book also reports any applicable regulatory exclusivity that prevents competitive entry. We summarize the Orange Book’s coverage and discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with using these data for research. Empirical validations against various administrative datasets suggest that Orange Book records are, largely, complete and accurate. We conclude with a specific use case—calculating legal exclusivity periods for drugs—to highlight the types of choices that researchers must make when using this resource.
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Copy CitationMaya Durvasula, C. Scott Hemphill, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Bhaven N. Sampat, and Heidi L. Williams, "The NBER Orange Book Dataset: A User’s Guide," NBER Working Paper 30628 (2022), https://doi.org/10.3386/w30628.
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Published Versions
Maya Durvasula & C. Scott Hemphill & Lisa Larrimore Ouellette & Bhaven Sampat & Heidi L. Williams, 2023. "The NBER Orange Book Dataset: A user’s guide," Research Policy, vol 52(7). citation courtesy of 
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