From November 30 to December 1, Skolkovo hosted the VIII International Conference entitled "Antitrust Policy: Science, Practice, Education" co-organized by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia and the Skolkovo Foundation. The Conference included a meeting of the BRICS Working Group for the Research of Competition Issues in Pharmaceutical Markets (in the BRICS+ format).
The event was attended by experts, academics, as well as representatives of foreign competition authorities and international organizations. The program included a plenary session and a number of sessions dedicated to competition in digital markets, antitrust control over M&A transactions, best practices for the suppression and detection of cartels in the era of digitalization, and others.
On the second day of the conference, the BRICS Working Group for Research of Competition Issues in Pharmaceutical Markets met to discuss trends in the use of compulsory licensing and other forms of utilization of an invention without the permission of the rights holder, consider current issues of protecting intellectual property rights, and also assess how effective antimonopoly regulation contributes to the growth and development of the pharmaceutical market, including by adjusting anticompetitive behavior associated with the abuse of intellectual rights.