Maria Salgado

Vice President

  • San Francisco
  • 415.229.8149

Maria Salgado coheads Cornerstone Research’s healthcare practice. She conducts economic analyses for complex business litigation matters, particularly those involving pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Her experience covers intellectual property, antitrust, reimbursement disputes, and consumer fraud matters. Dr. Salgado works with attorneys on all phases of the litigation process and has prepared experts for deposition and trial. Who’s Who Legal has recognized her as a Future Leader in the competition field and “an authority on the pharmaceuticals space.”

Antitrust

Dr. Salgado has substantial experience with antitrust issues in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, including analyzing relevant markets, competitive effects, class certification, and damages. She has worked on matters involving allegations of delayed generic entry of pharmaceutical drugs due to alleged sham litigation, exclusive supply arrangements, and lifecycle management strategies. Dr. Salgado has expertise with matters involving pricing disputes, including price fixing allegations. In healthcare, she has addressed antitrust issues related to physician services and health insurance markets.

Dr. Salgado also consults on antitrust matters in other industries, including credit card, high-tech, and online advertising markets.

Intellectual property

Dr. Salgado has substantial experience in Hatch-Waxman matters, including evaluating irreparable harm and commercial success issues arising from Paragraph IV challenges. She has particular expertise in biosimilars, and has written extensively on intellectual property and antitrust issues related to the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA). Dr. Salgado has assessed the value of early stage drugs in the context of patent cases. In high-tech industries, she has calculated patent infringement damages and analyzed the role of standard-setting organizations and RAND commitments.

Reimbursement disputes

Dr. Salgado has extensive experience analyzing sampling, liability, and damages issues in reimbursement disputes. She has assessed fair market value in relation to alleged kickbacks to physicians; analyzed the sampling and extrapolation of claims; evaluated reasonable rates for out-of-network services; and consulted on False Claims Act matters. Dr. Salgado has extensive expertise with health insurance issues, including Medicare Fee-for-Service, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, commercial insurance, healthcare exchanges, and the Affordable Care Act.

Marketing and consumer fraud

Dr. Salgado has analyzed class certification issues related to the off-label promotion of pharmaceutical drugs, and evaluated the impact of the change in healthcare benefits to a group of enrollees. In addition, she has estimated the impact of allegedly false labeling claims on sales and prices, and has worked on the design and implementation of consumer surveys.

Research

Dr. Salgado is the author or coauthor of several articles, including “Economics of Irreparable Harm in Pharma Patent Litigation” in Law360; “A Primer on When to Use Expert Witnesses and How to Find Them” in Bloomberg Law; and “Biosimilar Competition: Lessons from Europe” in Nature Reviews.

Dr. Salgado formerly chaired the Antitrust Interface with the Intellectual Property Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Intellectual Property Law.

Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Salgado worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and at Galanto Consulting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Education

Practices