This article explores key developments in the concept of abuse as applied in the pharmaceutical sector since the General Court’s landmark July 2010 judgment in AstraZeneca. The article focuses on: (i) the April 2011 decision of the Office of Fair Trading in relation to Reckitt Benckiser; the January 2012 Autorità Garante della Concurrenza e del Mercato decision in relation to Pfizer Italy; and (iii) the May 2012 Opinion of Advocate General Mazak in the appeal to the European Court of Justice of the General Court’s AstraZeneca judgment itself.
This article originally appeared in The CPI Antitrust Chronicle.