“One of the main objectives of competition law is to protect consumers against abusive practices. However, it has rarely been used to directly address excessive prices for medicines. Debates around the opportunities and challenges of using competition law to address the problem of high prices of medicines are increasing worldwide. Some of the main questions include: Can competition law be used in case of a lawful monopoly, such as those acquired through patents or regulatory measures? When is a price high enough to qualify as “excessive”?
Prof. Frederick Abbott will address these questions and present his research on the doctrine of excessive pricing applied to the pharmaceutical sector, based on his 2016 article and a number of significant subsequent developments. He will present the main arguments for using competition law to address high medicines prices and technical aspects of how to determine when prices are excessive (e.g. considering cost of production, cost of development, degrees of risk). Frederick Abbott is Professor of International Law at Florida State University College of Law.
Participants will be able to pose questions orally and in writing during the webinar. Recordings of all webinars will be made available online. We hope you will be able to join us for this informative presentation. After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with instructions to join the webinar.
This event is part of the inaugural webinar series of the Knowledge Network for Innovation and Access to Medicines, a project of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Suggestions for speakers and topics for future webinars are welcome at globalhealthresearch@graduateinstitute.ch.”
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Source and registration: Graduate Institute