Price gouging in the B2B pharmaceutical market: a systematic review of unethical pricing, market manipulation, and regulatory challenges

Purpose The present study aims to systematically review the literature on price gouging in the business-to-business (B2B) pharmaceutical market. By reviewing the intellectual structure of the area, the study’s findings analyze key themes and future research directions from economic, regulatory and governance perspectives. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted in Scopus, yielding a final corpus of 62 journal articles. Bibliometric techniques, including performance analysis using Biblioshiny and science mapping using VOSviewer, were used to examine publication trends, influential contributors and thematic knowledge clusters. Findings Six major research clusters: pricing models, value-based pricing, cost-effectiveness analysis, regulatory reform, market incentives and managed entry agreements. It has been concluded that the concept of price gouging goes beyond pricing strategies and should be considered a broader governance problem associated with the institutional setting, bargaining process, regulations and market power imbalances in the B2B pharmaceutical procurement system. Research limitations/implications The review was limited to English-language journals indexed in the Scopus database. Future research can extend the evidence base by drawing on additional bibliographic databases and other information sources to conduct a more comprehensive investigation of pharmaceutical price gouging. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the earliest attempts to conduct a systematic bibliometric review of literature dedicated specifically to price gouging in the B2B pharmaceuticals market. The combined use of bibliometric analysis and science mapping provides an opportunity to obtain a comprehensive picture of the knowledge architecture in the domain and to outline the research agenda.