On Wednesday 22 November 2017, Stibbe will organise a seminar on Biosimilars & Competition Law in Brussels. This seminar will be co-organized by competition lawyers from Stibbe and competition economists from CRA so as to cover both legal and economic angles relevant to this increasingly important field.
Given the ever increasing economic significance of biologics in the pharmaceutical space – as well as signals from regulators that this field will come into focus shortly – it is time to explore the implications of the competition rules for business behavior in this area. This includes a discussion of the following topics/questions:
- What can we expect from competition authorities in this space?
- To what extent do the competition law principles developed for synthetic drugs apply to the biological space?
- How does this play out in the context of life cycle management?
- What stance do authorities take in merger control cases involving biologics?
- What about pricing strategies? Is there more reason for concern following cases like Aspen (EU) and Pfizer (UK)?
Our intention is to go beyond scratching the surface on these topics in order to provide guidance for pharmaceutical companies in an area which we feel is receiving insufficient attention in the competition law domain.
For more information and to register, please send an email to: StibbeEvents@Stibbe.com.
A provisional program can be found below:
- 12:00 - 12:30: Registration
- 12:30 - 12:45: Introduction by chair - Stibbe/CRA
- 12:45 - 13:15: Keynote speech by Paul Paul Csiszár, Director of "Basic Industries, Manufacturing and Agriculture", responsible for the Commission’s pharma unit
- 13:15 - 13:45: Industry trends in biosimilars - Tim Wilsdon, CRA
- 13:45 - 14:30: Biologics in EU merger control: current status and likely issues in the future - Stibbe
- 14:30 - 15:00: Break
- 15:00 - 15:45: Competition law boundaries of life cycle management strategies: application to the biologics space - Stibbe
- 15:45 - 16:30: Pricing practices & antitrust: law and economics - Raphaël De Coninck, CRA
- 16:30 - 16: 45: Closing
- 16:45 - 17:30: Drink
When: 22 November 2017 from 12.00 -17.30.
Where: Stibbe office: Central Plaza - Loksumstraat 25 Rue de Loxum - 1000 Brussels
