43In the light of the foregoing, in order to assess whether, on the one hand, a manufacturer of originator medicines who is the holder of a process patent for an active ingredient that is in the public domain and, on the other, a manufacturer of generic medicines preparing to enter the market of the medicine containing that active ingredient who have entered into an agreement such as those at issue in the main proceedings are potential competitors of each other, it is necessary to determine, first, whether, at the time when that agreement was concluded, the manufacturer concerned of generic medicines had taken sufficient preparatory steps to enable it to enter the market concerned within such a period of time as would impose competitive pressure on the manufacturer of originator medicines.
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