Cooperative Agreements: A Private Practitioner's Perspective

Introduction

Cooperative agreements have always played a particularly significant role in the pharmaceutical industry, with companies partnering from early stage research and development (R&D) through to late stage commercialisation.

The covid-19 pandemic has been an opportunity for actors across the pharmaceutical supply chain to demonstrate the benefits that swift and flexible cooperation can bring. Faced with lockdowns and other restrictions, companies have come together to help avoid or unblock shortages of, and increase access to, medicines. The need for this cooperation was swiftly recognised by competition authorities. They pointed to the wider societal benefits that certain joint efforts could deliver, and showed a willingness to take this into account when assessing cooperation under their competition laws. Several regulators have issued general guidance in this context, and some have offered and provided case-specific comfort in this regard.