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Hernandez, Francisco --- "ARTICLE 102 TFEU: PATENT FILINGS AS AN ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION AFTER ASTRAZENECA: THE PATENT-ANTITRUST INTERFACE UNDER A NEW PERSPECTIVE" [2019] ELECD 1271; in Figueroa, Pablo; Guerrero, Alejandro (eds), "EU Law of Competition and Trade in the Pharmaceutical Sector" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 219

Book Title: EU Law of Competition and Trade in the Pharmaceutical Sector

Editor(s): Figueroa, Pablo; Guerrero, Alejandro

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: ARTICLE 102 TFEU: PATENT FILINGS AS AN ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION AFTER ASTRAZENECA: THE PATENT–ANTITRUST INTERFACE UNDER A NEW PERSPECTIVE

Author(s): Hernández, Francisco

Number of pages: 28

Abstract/Description:

In recent years the patent system has been challenged in different ways. From academic works like those of Boldrin and Levine and editorials of influential media like The Economist which question the very existence of the system to others who, from less extreme positions, just highlight its imperfections. It is in the pharmaceutical sector where the debate about the effects of the patent system is having a greater impact. Indeed, patents appear difficult to reconcile with the need for sufficient and adequate access to medicines. The large amounts national health services pay for medicines every year adds to the relevance of this debate. The development of a legal rule for abuse of patent or, more generally, abuse of intellectual property rights, will help to strike the balance between the rights of inventors and the rights of consumers through competition enforcement.