Correlation between private and public interests in antitrust regulation (as demonstrated by the pharmaceutical market)

Abstract

The article addresses the conflict of private and public interests on the pharmaceutical market arising in the antitrust regulation. The authors suggest assessing antitrust interventions in establishment of rights and enforcement of laws in terms of potential errors known in economics as type I and type II errors, and negative implications of type I errors, where the innocent are punished. The examples of governmental regulation of the pricing of essential drugs, the practice of state procurement of medicines, the use of compulsory licensing institute are used to address the problem of balance between the private and the public interests, to suggest principles and mechanisms meant to reduce the number of errors in establishment of rights and enforcement of laws in order to develop more efficient model of antitrust regulation.