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| home > epc > summer 2004 > in the european court opens a small window of opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to restrict parallel imports of medicines |
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European Pharmaceutical Contractor
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On 6th January 2004, the European Court of Justice handed down its judgement in the Bayer Adalat case; a decision dealing with the controversial issue of parallel trade in pharmaceutical products. The implications of this case are potentially significant for the pharmaceutical industry, which has seen considerable so-called 'grey imports' from low-price countries, such as Spain, arrive in higher priced countries, such as the UK and Germany. For pharmaceutical manufacturers and their distributors, this decision opens a narrow window of opportunity to cut back on the level of this trade. For the parallel import industry, importing from lower priced EU countries outside of the manufacturer's formal distribution channels may become more difficult in future.
By now, most of us are familiar with the term 'parallel imports', seen by many pharmaceutical companies as a real threat to profits, and by the parallel importers as a multi-million pound opportunity to exploit price differences between EU member states. The European Commission views parallel imports as playing a vital role in invigorating the EU single market. The concept of compartmentalised national markets, where resellers are not free to sell to other countries, is inconsistent with the EU goal of a single market without internal frontiers. The European Commission's underlying policy is that consumers in high-price countries should have the opportunity to source elsewhere in the EU at more favourable prices. For several decades now, the European Commission has vigorously applied EU competition rules in pursuing companies that clipped the wings of parallel traders, not least in the pharmaceutical sector.
In a recent communication (30th December 2003), the European Commission has again confirmed that parallel imports of medicinal products are permitted in the EU. The basic applicable EU law principles reiterated by the Commission in this recent Communication are:
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