The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 266 No 7153 p852-856
June 23, 2001

  Medicines promotions
  GlaxoSmithKline
  Monitired dosage systems
  The Profession
  NHS
  Parallel trading
  Dressings
  Checking technicians
  Code of Ethics
  SGM
  Onlooker
  The Journal

Parallel trading

Not a grey market activity

From Mr D. R. Macarthur, MRPharmS

As the pan-European representative body for pharmaceutical parallel traders, the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies (EAEPC) was pleased to note your report of the ban on dual pricing in Spain upheld by the European Commission against Glaxo Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) (PJ, June 2, p737). However, you went on to say the commission has consistently defended the right of distributors in a variety of sectors to partake in such grey market activities. Far from being a grey market activity, parallel trading in medicines is a thoroughly regulated, highly desirable activity, which not only leads to considerable direct savings for the health care system and/or patient, but also enhances price competition in the notoriously uncompetitive patent-protected sector.

What the commission has said about parallel trade is that it “acts as an important driving force for market integration where there are important differences in prices between member states” (Communication on the Single Market in Pharmaceuticals, November 25, 1998) and that it “will consistently apply the competition rules to agreement or conduct which restricts parallel trade in drugs” (XXVth Report on Competition Policy, COM [96]126 final). The Commission’s unequivocal dismissal, on both legal and factual grounds, of all Glaxo Wellcome’s economic arguments in support of its attempt to partition the single European market — within which the terms “import” and “export” are no longer applicable — though very welcome, is hardly surprising. It is merely in line with a series of rulings, dating back to the mid-1970s, by the Commission and the European Court of Justice, on the legality of pharmaceutical parallel trade and the futility of attempts to obstruct it.

Donald Macarthur
Secretary General,
European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies

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