Competition Law in the Pharmaceutical Industry: a Bird & Bird View

In this interview for PTV, Fintan Walton talks to Richard Eccles, Partner at the international law firm Bird & Bird, on the contents of the report entitled ‘Competition Law and Intellectual Property Strategy in the Pharmaceuticals Sector’, written by Richard and his colleague Gerry Kamstra, of Bird & Bird. This major new report is a co-publication between PharmaVentures and Bird & Bird.

In the interview Richard explains the importance of understanding competition law, and how these operate across the EU. Pricing and regulatory issues are discussed in-depth, and Richard comments on the changing levels of complexity of regulatory laws. He also gives a summary on generic companies’ stance within competition law. Richard illustrates these points using specific cases involving GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.

Richard Eccles

Richard Eccles qualified as a solicitor in 1985 and is a Partner in Bird & Bird’s Competition Law Group. He is experienced in all aspects of EC and UK competition law (and merger control), including competition regulation of network industries, EC (and UK) competition rules on undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by the state, and the EC state aid rules. He has advised extensively on the competition regulation of network industries and liberalised utilities and also has particular experience inter alia in the life sciences and oil and gas sectors.

Richard is included in the rankings of leading competition lawyers in all the top legal directories. He is a frequently published author on competition law and regulatory subjects. He regularly speaks at conferences and is Chairman of The Law Society’s European Group. Richard is the lead author of the PharmaVentures Report, ‘Competition Law and Intellectual Property Strategy in the Pharmaceuticals Sector’.

Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird is an international commercial law firm which operates on the basis of an in-depth understanding of key industry sectors. The firm focuses on aviation and aerospace, financial services, communications, e-commerce, IT, life sciences, media and sport. The firm operates offices in Beijing, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, The Hague, Hong Kong, London, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome and Stockholm, and has close ties with firms in other key centres in Europe, Asia and the United States.