Maria Salgado

Maria Salgado coheads Cornerstone Research’s healthcare practice. She also serves on the firm’s strategy, conflict resolution, and expert development committees. Dr. Salgado has more than twenty years of consulting experience in matters involving regulatory issues, antitrust, marketing, false advertising claims, intellectual property (IP), and general business litigation, particularly in healthcare and the life sciences. She has addressed class certification, liability, and damages and has consulted on the competitive effects of mergers.

Dr. Salgado has experience in all phases of litigation, including deposition and trial, and regularly leads large teams working with multiple experts. She also has substantial experience conducting economic analysis for government investigations.

Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized Dr. Salgado multiple times as a leading competition economist and “an authority on the pharmaceuticals space.” She is a prior chair of the Antitrust Interface with Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA).

Healthcare disputes

Dr. Salgado has extensive experience analyzing a wide variety of economic issues in matters involving the False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback Statute, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement laws, and the No Surprises Act. She has conducted economic analysis in relation to alleged kickbacks; evaluated reasonable rates for out-of-network services; analyzed risk adjustment reimbursement; evaluated causation, impact, and damages arising from sales and marketing practices; and analyzed the sampling and extrapolation of claims.

Dr. Salgado also works on economic issues involving managed care as well as government programs such as Medicare Fee-for-Service, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the 340B Program.

Marketing and false advertising claims

Dr. Salgado consults on consumer class actions and government actions related to companies’ marketing practices and allegations of false advertising. She has evaluated class certification, liability, and damages issues related to alleged inappropriate marketing, false advertising, and product defects.

In assessing heterogeneity and harm among putative class members, Dr. Salgado has analyzed economic and market data and has applied machine learning and natural language processing methods to marketing communications, news articles, and social media content. She has particular expertise with economic and marketing analyses related to alleged public nuisance claims. Dr. Salgado’s work also includes the design and implementation of consumer surveys.

Antitrust

Dr. Salgado has substantial experience with antitrust issues in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and has analyzed relevant markets, competitive effects, class certification, and damages, among other issues. She has addressed allegations of delayed generic entry of pharmaceutical drugs due to sham litigation claims, exclusive supply arrangements, price fixing, and lifecycle management strategies.

In healthcare antitrust matters, Dr. Salgado has consulted on alleged exclusionary behavior, claims of horizontal conspiracy, and health insurance mergers.

Intellectual property

Dr. Salgado’s IP work includes Hatch-Waxman matters involving pharmaceuticals, including evaluating irreparable harm and commercial success issues related to Paragraph IV challenges. She has substantial expertise in biosimilars.

Publications and presentations

Dr. Salgado has published articles on healthcare and life sciences, on topics related to pharmaceutical mergers, reverse payments, biosimilar competition, irreparable harm, and healthcare class actions. She has also written about IP and antitrust issues involving the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA).

Her research has appeared in journals such as Health Affairs, The Antitrust Source, Nature Reviews, Concurrences Competition Law Review, and the Antitrust Health Care Chronicle. She regularly presents this work, often with coauthors, at professional and academic conferences.