Something old and important is lost sight of in a case like Ohio v. American Express, the Supreme Court's recent adoption of "platform" or "two-sided market" theory in American antitrust, and in theoretical efforts like the one on which it is based. A rarely discussed idea built in to American...

Very few industries are as profoundly influenced by regulation as the pharmaceutical industry. All aspects of the life-cycle of new drugs are regulated, from patent application, to marketing approval, commercial exploitation, patent expiration and competition with generics. The nature of demand...

There has been a continuing growth in urbanisation in developing countries, and governments’ face a major challenge in ensuring that city dwellers are able to procure sufficient food. Street foods are sold in almost every country in the world. In most towns and cities in Ghana, selling of...

Some scholars have argued that common ownership, which refers to an investor's simultaneous ownership of small stockholdings in several competing companies, is anticompetitive and prohibited by the U.S. antitrust laws. Proponents of this view target in particular large investment managers that...

This paper analyses how governments can introduce more competition in the pharmaceutical sector. Considering it involves harmonizing issues such as incentives to innovate and perform research and development (R&D), Intellectual Property (IP) rights, healthcare policy and public budget concerns,...

Despite a culture of innovation, the U.S. health care system has been markedly deficient in its implementation of information technology (IT). Although recent initiatives have endeavored to remedy this shortcoming, fragmentation, high costs, information asymmetries, and evolving regulatory...

While the U.S. has pursued a vigorous antitrust policy towards horizontal mergers over the past four decades, mergers in Canada have until recently been permitted to take place in a virtually unrestricted antitrust environment. The absence of an antitrust overhang in Canada presents an...

The paper provides a detailed description of the legal and regulatory framework that governs Italian pharmacies and the retail distribution of pharmaceuticals, as well as the government’s recent attempts to reform and modernize the system. The picture to emerge is a clear example of an...

In early 2004, the U.S. Government initiated the Medicare Discount Drug Card Program, under which a large amount of pharmacy-level price data pertaining to over 800 drugs has been released weekly on the Medicare Web site continuously between May 29, 2004 and October 2005. This extensive...

In early 2004, the U.S. Government initiated the Medicare Discount Drug Card Program, which created a market for drug cards that allowed their subscribers to obtain discounts on their prescription drug purchases. Pharmacy-level prices for several drugs were posted on the program website weekly...