Sean Nicholson

Sean Nicholson is an expert on competition, innovation, pricing, and reimbursement in the life sciences and healthcare industries. He has analyzed markets involving small molecule, biologic, and biosimilar drugs, including orphan and specialty drugs, as well as medical devices. Professor Nicholson has evaluated the behavior of a variety of industry participants, including drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), hospitals, pharmacies, and physicians.

On numerous occasions, Professor Nicholson has testified in deposition and at trial in federal and state courts, before the U.S. International Trade Commission, and in inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He has offered expert opinions on issues of liability, damages, and class certification in antitrust and competition, intellectual property, consumer fraud and product liability, and breach of contract matters.

In antitrust and competition matters, Professor Nicholson has assessed a range of allegations, such as monopolization, market foreclosure, refusal to deal, and tying. In these matters, he has analyzed topics at the forefront of the life sciences and healthcare industries, including PBM rebate practices, pharmacy network design, Orange Book patent listings, Risk Evaluation and Management Strategies (REMS), insurer-provider contracting, and most favored nation (MFN) clauses.

Professor Nicholson’s experience in intellectual property matters includes patent infringement and trade secrets damages under lost profits, unjust enrichment, and reasonable royalty standards. He has also offered opinions on irreparable harm and commercial success.

Professor Nicholson has offered expert opinions in breach of contract cases involving out-of-network (OON) healthcare provider reimbursement and commercially reasonable efforts regarding drug development, manufacturing, and marketing.

In matters alleging product misrepresentation, Professor Nicholson has addressed questions of causation between alleged off-label marketing and physician prescribing behavior, and he has rebutted damages analyses under lost profits and public nuisance theories of harm. In addition, he has evaluated false claims allegations and purported damages in matters regarding reference pricing for prescription drugs.

Professor Nicholson’s academic research focuses on innovation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, healthcare and drug costs, and the value of new medical technologies. Widely published, he has had his work appear in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Health Economics, and the Handbook of Health Economics, among others. He is a former associate editor of Health Economics.

Professor Nicholson teaches in the department of economics and the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. Before joining the Cornell faculty, he taught courses on healthcare systems at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Nicholson has received several awards for excellence in teaching.