Law Commons^™

Sharing, Samples, And Generics: An Antitrust Framework, Michael A. Carrier

Cornell Law Review

Rising drug prices are in the news. By increasing price, drug companies have placed vital, even life-saving, medicines out of the reach of consumers. In a recent development, brand firms have prevented generics even from entering the market. The ruse for this strategy involves risk-management programs known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (“REMS”). Pursuant to legislation enacted in 2007, the FDA requires REMS when a drug’s risks (such as death or injury) outweigh its rewards. Brands have used this regime, intended to bring drugs to the market, to block generic competition. Regulations such as the federal Hatch-Waxman Act and …

Use Case Product Markets And The Spirit Of Reasonable Interchangeability, Denis Hurley

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

This Note posits that a single product with multiple, non-reasonably interchangeable use cases can function like multiple products, exchanged in multiple product markets, for purposes of assessing antitrust liability.

In antitrust law, individual product markets are defined by the principle of reasonable interchangeability (or substitutability). Where a single product has multiple uses that are not reasonably interchangeable, the use cases should define the product market. The lay concept of what constitutes a single product is not applicable to antitrust law when a single product has multiple, non-reasonably interchangeable use cases. As a result, antitrust liability should attach where a seller …