Public Health, Markets and Law
COMPHACRISIS
MSCA Workshop
29 September 2023
UCD Sutherland School of Law
The Sutherland School of Law at University College Dublin (UCD) hosted a one-day workshop on Public Health, Markets and Law on 29 September 2023. The workshop brought together legal, business, sociology and public health scholars to discuss the intersection of these fields in the health sector.
The workshop was opened by (opens in a new window)Professor Imelda Maher, Sutherland's Full Professor of European Law and the Director of the Dublin European Institute (the DEI), who welcomed the participants and provided an overview of the day’s sessions.
This was followed by a keynote address by Ms Anna Vernet, Head of Unit at the (opens in a new window)EU Commission’s Directorate General for Competition (DGCOMP), on the role of antitrust enforcement in the pharmaceutical sector from an EU perspective.
The keynote session was chaired by (opens in a new window)Professor Helen Roche, Interim Vice-President for Research, Impact and Innovation at UCD.
The workshop consisted of three sessions with panel discussions on specific themes.
(opens in a new window)Dr Mary Catherine Lucey chaired the morning session of Competition Law and the Health Sector. The first session featured presentations by (opens in a new window)Dr Hab. Łukasz Grzejdziak from the University of Strathclyde spoke on state aid for healthcare services and the relationship between market and solidarity. (opens in a new window)Dr Enrique Sanjuan y Muñoz from the Court of Appeal of Málaga and (opens in a new window)Dr Carmen de Vivero de Porras from the University of Málaga presented a case study on competition law enforcement in the pharmaceutical sector in Spain. In her paper, (opens in a new window)Dr Mary Guy from Liverpool John Moores University discussed public hospitals, state aid, and wider learning for competition and health care.
In the afternoon, the second session on ‘Public Health & Markets through a Multidisciplinary Lens’ was chaired by Mr Francis Jacobs, the former head of the European Parliament Liason office in Ireland and the current adjunct senior research fellow at UCD.
The second session included a presentation by (opens in a new window)Professor Cecily Kelleher from UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences on COVID-19 experience. She discussed how having a ‘One Health Approach to Policy and Practice’ could help to prepare for future public health crises. (opens in a new window)Professor Susi Geiger from UCD School of Business spoke about market failures and temporal frictions in the pharmaceutical industry. Mr Philip J Ryan from UCD SMARTlab presented on inclusive design for healthcare regulation.
The final session on ‘IP Law, Markets and Health’ was chaired by (opens in a new window)Dr Cliona Kelly, associate professor at UCD School of Law and featured a presentation by (opens in a new window)Professor Aisling McMahon from Maynooth University on patents, TRIPS and the private governance of public health.
Then, (opens in a new window)Dr Luke McDonagh from the London School of Economics spoke about lessons from the Theranos case study and the IP aspects of this case.
Ms. Sara Solhchi and Mr. Kian Biglarbeigi from ATU and SBU universities in Tehran presented on artificial intelligence bias as a health law matter. The workshop concluded with remarks from (opens in a new window)Dr Mina Hosseini, MSCA postdoctoral fellow from UCD Sutherland School of Law, who summarised the critical discussions and insights from the day.
Through interdisciplinary discussions over three panels, the workshop provided insightful analyses of the complex relationship between competition law enforcement, IP frameworks and public health goals. It highlighted open questions and future research needs at this critical intersection of several disciplines in the healthcare sector.
This workshop is organised, funded and facilitated within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon Europe MSCA postdoctoral fellowship COMPHACRISIS under grant agreement No. 101061575.
