Join the City Health Economics Centre and the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy for a roundtable discussion on excessive pricing in pharma.
Summary
Are excessive pricing in pharma cases reaching the UK courts due to a regulatory loophole? A number of recent cases litigated various regulatory and competition policy aspects of post-patent drug pricing. Examples of such cases include:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-defeats-legal-challenge-in-medicine-pricing-case
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-decision-upheld-in-major-drug-price-abuse-case
Once the patent for a drug expires, this drug is no longer price regulated because competition from generic counterparts is expected to keep price hikes at bay. However, in some cases, the lack of post-patent price regulation has led to large price increases and resulted in the NHS paying increasingly high bills on behalf of the patients dependent on these drugs. Do such excessive pricing cases reach the CMA despite or because of the 2017 Health Services Medicinal Supplies Act that, in theory, gave the government the power to control the prices of generic drugs but, in practice, was never properly enforced? Under Article 102(a) TFEU on excessive pricing, when deciding a case, there are two criteria to check for: whether pricing is fair in its own right and whether it is excessive relative to comparators. Unsurprisingly, the coexistence of two criteria that are not perfectly aligned has left room for decisions that can be appealed by the companies (in some instances successfully) to the Competition Appeals Tribunal.
Excessive pricing in pharma is an academically interesting and socially relevant issue. During the round table our panellists will provide their insights on the pricing behaviours of pharmaceutical companies and policy implications of these behaviours.
Schedule
10:30 - 11:00: arrival and registration (Main Reception)
11:00 - 13:00: roundtable and discussion (EM01)
13:00 - 14:00: networking lunch (Main Reception)
Participants
Victoria Serra-Sastre (Reader in Economics at City, University of London)
Xeni Dassiou (Reader in Economics at City, University of London)
Lotte Steuten (Deputy Chief Executive at the Office of Health Economics)
Carmine Ornaghi (Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton)
Julie Bon (Deputy Chief Economic Adviser at Competition Markets Authority - CMA)
Katie Curry (Partner at RBB Economics)
Tim Johnston (Barrister at Brick Court Chambers)
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