Professor Sean Tu recently published an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, with Jamie King, titled Anticompetitive Mergers — Pharmaceutical Buyouts as a Strategy for Maintaining Market Dominance. In the piece, Tu and King explore how some pharmaceutical mergers framed as engines of innovation are being used to quietly eliminate competition. By acquiring smaller rivals, dominant firms are able to halt the development of competing drugs, preserving market dominance and high prices. Tu and King highlight how current antitrust frameworks—particularly reporting thresholds and the treatment of intangible assets like patents—allow many of these deals to evade antitrust scrutiny. This leads to fewer competitors, delayed innovation, and reduced access to affordable therapies. They argue that strengthening big pharma merger oversight is essential to ensure that mergers promote competition, innovation, and patient access.
Professor Tu also co-authored an article published in the Duke Law Journal, with Christopher Buccafusco and Brent Lutes, titled How Big is Copyright’s Second Bite?: An Empirical Assessment of Copyright Reversion . In the piece, the authors provide a critical empirical evaluation of the “termination of transfer” provisions in U.S. copyright law, which allow authors to unilaterally cancel contracts and reclaim their rights. Analyzing a novel dataset of over 150,000 termination notices, the authors argue that these provisions, which in part were intended to redistribute wealth to “poorly situated” artists—largely fail their purpose, as they are primarily utilized by already successful and wealthy creators. This research highlights the gap between legislative intent and real-world outcomes.
Check out more of Professor Tu’s recent work on our news center.