On Unknown Opportunities and Perils: Reflections on Carrier and Minniti’s ‘Biologics: The New Antitrust Frontier’

Posted by Social Science Research Network

On Unknown Opportunities and Perils: Reflections on Carrier and Minniti’s ‘Biologics: The New Antitrust Frontier’

By Thomas F. Cotter (University of Minnesota)

In their forthcoming article “Biologics: The New Antitrust Frontier,” Michael Carrier and Carl Minniti predict what antitrust problems will arise from conduct on the part of biologic and biosimilar drug manufacturers in the near future, and how these problems will differ (in terms of frequency and severity) from the more familiar issues arising from the discovery, regulation, and marketing of small-molecule compounds. In this responsive essay I argue that, while there are certain types of cases the frequency of which in this context we can predict with a fair degree of confidence, and for which courts have more-or-less standard analytical frameworks available, precisely how various possible threats to innovation and competition will play out in the years to come remains to some degree both unknown and unknowable. The frontier beyond the frontier remains ever elusive.

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