26 February 2019  Paris  

Affordable access to many drugs is made difficult by high prices. At the same time, serious questions are being asked about the degree of innovation and value offered by increasingly costly treatments.

On 26 February 2019, the OECD held a one-day workshop in Paris to study the interaction between competition and IP rights in pharmaceutical markets.

Particular focus was given to:

• the role of competition in protecting innovation; and 
• patent strategies that seek to deter or delay the entry of generic medicines into the market, such as pay-for-delay, product-hopping, abuse of IP processes, ever-greening or patent clustering, among others. 

The workshop offered an opportunity to investigate the impact and role that IP rights play in the pharmaceutical sector while sharing experiences on how to address anticompetitive practices. We also discussed the challenges of investigating and sanctioning such practices, and identified potential best practices.  

PROGRAMME

Draft Agenda

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Duncan MATTHEWS Bio   
Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary University of London

Michael A. CARRIER Bio   
Professor of Law, Rutgers University

» View photo album here

RELATED EVENTS

Two other OECD events were helf held back-to-back to this event. For more information:

• OECD Competition Open Day (27 Feb.) 
• Workshop on Competition in Publicly Funded Markets (28 Feb.)

CONTACTS

Any questions related to the scope of the workshop should be sent to Pedro Caro de Sousa.

Questions regarding the logistics of the event can be sent to Sofia Pavlidou. 

DOCUMENTS AND LINKS 

Excessive Pricing in Pharmaceuticals, 2018

Generic pharmaceuticals and competition, 2014

Generic Pharmaceuticals, 2009

Intellectual Property Rights, 2004

Competition and Regulation Issues in the Pharmaceutical Industry, 2000

Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Rights, 1997 

All regulated sectors roundtables 

More work by the OECD Competition division