To meet the requirements of global competition, the European Union (EU) places particular emphasis on the development of knowledge‑intensive, innovative industries. The pharmaceutical industry, as a high‑tech manufacturing subsection, has a long tradition in Europe. However, the distribution...

This paper examines the idea that the USA has outshined Europe in the race for new medicines as a result of a flight of business R&D expenditure to the USA. It adopts a methodology that accounts for R&D price inflation, considers the role of both ‘performed' R&D and ‘extra-mural' R&D, and...

Lanjouw and Schankerman (2004) proposed that patent quality is a key driver of R&D productivity but did not find supportive evidence for pharmaceuticals. This study revisits this hypothesis using OECD data for the period 1980-2000. It extends the literature in three ways: it develops new R&D...

New drug introductions are a key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However not all innovations are the same and they may have differential effects that vary by firm size. We use quarterly sales data on UK pharmaceuticals in a dynamic panel model to estimate the impact of product (new drugs)...

In the pharmaceuticals sector there is an inherent tension between intellectual property rights and antitrust. This paper examines this tension over the past 10 years since modernisation of EU competition law. It looks at three types of problems: (i) restrictions on parallel imports; (ii) abuse...

Consumers suffer from high drug prices, which stem in large part from pharmaceutical companies’ anticompetitive games. This essay discusses the crucial role antitrust enforcement agencies can play in addressing pay-for-delay settlements and product hopping and draws lessons from this...

Die Bundesregierung und die Europäische Kommission mussten in den letzten Wochen viel Kritik bezüglich ihrer Impfstoffbeschaffungsstrategie zur Eindämmung der Corona-Pandemie einstecken. Vor dem Hintergrund zu schleppend erscheinender Impfstofflieferungen und der zunehmenden Gefahr durch die...

External reference pricing (ERP), the practice of benchmarking domestic drug prices to foreign prices, generates an incentive for firms to withhold products from low-income countries. Using a novel moment inequality approach, we estimate a structural model to measure the extent to which ERP...

In this ex-post analysis, we have used three large pharmaceutical merger cases to examine the correctness of the market definition carried out by the FTC and the European Commission with regard to innovation competition. In doing so, we selected three merger cases that were reviewed by both...