Study on free market and competition in the expired-patent drug markets in Mexico.
Published: 2017
English Free Market Patents Drugs
Tipo de documento: Competition Advocacy Studies
Elaborado por: COFECE
Summary
Patents are important because they stimulate the introduction of better drugs into the market. When granting the right to innovative laboratories to exclude others from the exploitation of the patented invention, for a non-extendable period of 20 years, they incentivize the development of better products. But once the patent expires, other laboratories may produce and trade generic versions, which, theoretically, may discipline the market and make drugs available to a larger public, at a lower price. Generic drug products may be divided into branded generic drugs, (i.e., those identified by their commercial or distinctive name), and unbranded generic drugs (which are commercialized under the generic name that indicates the active substance contained in the product). Additionally, drugs may be classified by the number of suppliers: those having a single supplier are called single-source, and those having more than one supplier in the market are called multiple-source.
Keywords: Free market, the expired-patent patent, drug, drugs, patents, generic drugs, active substance, biovalilability, biological drugs, bolar clause, generic name, original or innovative drug, patent patent clustering, generic version, generic name, orphan drug, patented drug, pharmaceutical form, prescription drug, laboraties, Commission por Protection against Sanitary Risks, Ministry of Health, Mexical Social Security Institute.
Director of Public Governance at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (2007-2013).
Lecturer at ITAM (2002-2008).
Academic Coordinator at ITAM’s Economics Department (2005-2006).
Consultant for the Federal Telecommunications Commission (COFETEL) (2011)
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Mexico.
Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).
Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA), ITAM.
Alejandra Palacios, Chair of Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission (Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica; COFECE) is the first woman to head the Mexican antitrust authority. Following a major constitutional reform that set forth a new framework for competition in Mexico, Alejandra was appointed by Congress in 2013 to head the COFECE. She was reelected in 2017 for a second four-year tenure that will end in September 2021.
Before her current role at COFECE, Alejandra worked as Project Director at the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad; IMCO) for research projects focused on economic regulation, telecom, public procurement and other issues related to competition.
Since June 2016, she is Vice-President for the International Competition Network (ICN), the most prominent international network on competition, composed of 138 competition authorities around the world, and as of 2017, Member of the Bureau of the Competition Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Alejandra is also a member of the International Women’s Forum, Mexico chapter. In 2019 the Women@Competition organization included her in its list of “40 in their 40s” as one of the 40 most notable women in competition in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
Alejandra holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics, as well as an MBA from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She completed a second master’s degree in public policy at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).
Her academic work includes teaching as well as serving as the Academic Coordinator for the ITAM Economics faculty.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
Department Head, Deputy Director, Area Director and Deputy General Director at the Federal Economic Competition Commission’s (CFC) General Department of Legal Affairs (2000 – 2008).
Advisor to CFC Commissioner Rodrigo Morales Elcoro (2008 – 2013).
Advisor to COFECE Commissioner Francisco Javier Núñez Melgoza (2013).
Assistant General Director of the Economic Competition Unit at the Federal Telecommunications Institute (2014).
General Director at the Investigative Authorities’ Office for Coordination, COFECE (2014-2016).
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Law, Escuela Libre de Derecho, Mexico.
Master’s degree in International Law, Università di Bologna, Italy.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
Deputy General Director for International Affairs, Senior Legal Adviser, General Director for Foreign Investment and Head of Unit for Design and Implementation of Public Policies for Productivity, at the Ministry of Economy (2004-2009) (2011-2014).
Consultant for the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (2009-2011).
Head of COFECE’s Planning, Institutional Relations and International Affairs Unit (2014-2017).
Professor at Universidad Iberoamericana, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Mexico.
Columnist for the Business Section of the Mexican newspaper, Reforma.
Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Law, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.
Magister Juris, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Certification in Commercial Contracts and Businesses, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.
Certification in International Public and Private Law, The Hague Academy of International Law, Netherlands.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
*This section refers to those interviews which, in compliance with Article 25 of the FECL, the Commissioners discuss matters of their responsibility with the individuals that represent the interests of Economic Agents.
* Esta sección hace referencia a aquellas entrevistas en las que los Comisionados podrán tratar asuntos de su competencia con personas que representan los intereses de los Agentes Económicos contempladas en el artículo 25 de la Ley Federal de Competencia Económica (LFCE).
Evaluación ex ante de la concentración en el mercado de tiendas de autoservicio (Soriana – Comercial Mexicana)
