Reference no: EM131274074
Each of your words should below 150.
1. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), "a patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor", generally 20 years from the when the application was filed. A patent confers its owner the right to "exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention." This effectively acts as a barrier to entry that gives firms the ability to set monopoly prices.
Below are two statements regarding a competitive firm and a monopolist's pricing decisions:
Statement 1: The demand curve facing a competitive firm is horizontal whereas the demand curve facing a monopolist is downward sloping.
Statement 2: For a competitive firm, the price effect is nonexistent because it can sell all it wants at the given price. For a monopolist, the price effect is a reality: it must reduce the price in order to sell more.
Which statement correctly describes the relationship between the competitive firm's and the monopolist's pricing decisions?
2. Earlier this year, Mylan, the maker of the EpiPen, an epinephrine auto-injector for the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis, was under severe scrutiny for raising the price for its two-pack of injections from less than $100 in 2007 to about $600 (read here Washinton Post's story "How Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, became a virtual monopoly").
On October 26, 2016, The New York Times reported "An EpiPen Rival Is About to Return to the Shelves". Produced by Sanofi, Auvi-Q was taken off the market due to the suspicion that of device malfunctions that might make them give out the incorrect dose. But it is making a comeback circa 2017!
What do you expect will happen to the market for epinephrine auto-injectors? Will efficiency improve?