Showing archive for: “Pharmaceutical Industry”
Costs of Drug Prohibition
I have been thinking about a story that appeared in the Times a few days ago. States are considering requiring medical prescriptions for over-the-counter cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient for making methamphetamine. Mississippi and Oregon already have such laws, and other states are considering them, although they have been voted down in other ... Costs of Drug Prohibition
Insider trading at the FDA
The SEC has civilly charged an FDA employee under 17(a) and 10(b) with violating his duty of trust and confidence to the FDA and misappropriating drug approval information by using it to make $3.6 million in trading securities. The WSJ story summarizes: The SEC and the Justice Department said the men traded shares dating back ... Insider trading at the FDA
Lawyers and the invention of the barometer
Stephen Baker, writing in yesterday’s WSJ: Watson doesn’t “know” anything, experts say. * * * This is all enough to make you feel reinvigorated to be human. But focusing on Watson’s shortcomings misses the point. It risks distracting people from the transformation that Watson all but announced on its “Jeopardy!” debut: These question-answering machines will ... Lawyers and the invention of the barometer
Paul Rubin joins TOTM
You may have noticed the newest member of the TOTM Team. We’re very proud to welcome Paul Rubin, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics at Emory University and one of the leading figures in law and economics. Paul has written seminal articles on, among other subjects, the forces shaping the common law, franchising, and ... Paul Rubin joins TOTM
Jack Calfee, In Memoriam, by Paul Rubin
My good friend and coauthor John E. (Jack) Calfee died suddenly of a heart attack last month. He was bon in 1941 and was 69 years old. Jack came late to economics. After graduating from Rice with a major in mathematics, he studied international relations at the University of Chicago and then worked for AT&T ... Jack Calfee, In Memoriam, by Paul Rubin
Beer v. Pot, Public Choice Edition
The political economy of alcohol regulation has always been fascinating. But things took an interesting turn of late (HT: Marginal Revolution) when a beer industry trade group took a stand against a proposition that would legalize marijuana in California: The California Beer & Beverage Distributors is spending money in the state to oppose a marijuana ... Beer v. Pot, Public Choice Edition
The FTC Loses in Ovation Pharmaceuticals
There are some new developments in the Federal Trade Commission’s consummated merger case brought against Ovation. Namely, the FTC has lost. TOTM readers may recall that I spent some time criticizing the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint, back in 2008, in FTC v. Ovation in federal district court in Minnesota. As I described the stylized facts ... The FTC Loses in Ovation Pharmaceuticals
Delaware's Future
I share Prof. Ribstein’s concerns about the federalization of corporate governance contained in the Dodd bill. Though Senator Carper wasn’t able, in the end, to get the proxy access provisions out of the Dodd Bill, which I think were the most troubling, we did eliminate another of Senator Schumer’s ideas. (The corporate governance provisions of ... Delaware's Future
Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain
I’ve recently finished reading Jonathan Baker’s Preserving a Political Bargain: The Political Economy of the Non-Interventionist Challenge to Monopolization Enforcement, forthcoming in the Antitrust Law Journal. Baker’s central thesis in Preserving a Political Bargain builds on earlier work concerning competition policy as an implicit political bargain that was reached during the 1940s between the more ... Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain
The Girl Scouts and Section 5
It turns out that the Girl Scouts price discriminate, i.e. they charge different prices for the same product in different parts of the country (HT: Knowledge Problem). Rumor has it that demand for Thin Mints varies by region. While the Girl Scouts concede that the introduction of the price discrimination scheme results, when coupled with ... The Girl Scouts and Section 5
Is the Intel/AMD Settlement Illegal?
So, AMD and Intel settled. Its a case we’ve covered here in significant detail. Terms haven’t been announced publicly. AAI has predictably argued that the settlement shouldn’t preclude further enforcement action from NY and the FTC. The NY Times suggests the same. They may be right, although Herb Hovenkamp, among others, has suggested that the ... Is the Intel/AMD Settlement Illegal?
Ovation Reconsidered: A Response to Commissioner Leary
I was very pleased to thumb through the newest version of Antitrust Magazine and see a TOTM post get some attention. Its always nice to be cited and have folks take the time to respond to your work — or in this case, blog post. Its even more tickling when the person doing the responding ... Ovation Reconsidered: A Response to Commissioner Leary
