Law Department, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in EU Law, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Health Econ Policy Law. 2021 Jan;16(1):64-75. doi: 10.1017/S1744133120000109. Epub 2020 May 21.
The paper addresses the issue of excessive price abuse under Article 102(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), by drawing inspiration from a recent stream of cases (developed first at the national and then at the EU level) involving pharmaceutical companies marketing off-patent drugs. In particular, the two 'most advanced' cases are analysed: Aspen in Italy and Pfizer/Flynn in the United Kingdom. This new-found attention towards exploitative practices in the form of excessive and unfair pricing by dominant undertakings that have traditionally been subject to a cautious antitrust scrutiny seems worth exploring for a number of reasons, as illustrated in the paper. Ultimately, it is argued that this further 'interference' of competition law into the realms of regulation may be actually justified, albeit subject to precise conditions for enforcement, and may pursue policy objectives in the wider context of EU health law.
本文从最近涉及制药公司销售非专利药品的一系列案例（首先在国家层面，然后在欧盟层面发展）中汲取灵感，探讨了《欧盟运行条约》第 102(a)条下的过度价格滥用问题。特别是，分析了两个“最先进”的案例：意大利的阿斯彭案和英国的辉瑞/弗林案。由于本文所述的诸多原因，传统上受到反垄断审查的主导企业以过高和不公平的价格进行剥削性做法的这种新出现的关注似乎值得探讨。最终，有人认为，竞争法对监管领域的这种进一步“干预”实际上是合理的，但须符合执行的具体条件，并可在更广泛的欧盟健康法背景下追求政策目标。
