The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7217 p428
28 September 2002

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Importers can repack medicines without breaching trademark rights

Parallel importers can repack medicines which have centrally issued European marketing authorisations in order to match the manufacturer's packaging in destination member states.

The European Court of Justice ruled earlier this month that importers were precluded from bundling together medicines which were subject to marketing authorisations for different pack sizes. Instead, they should repack the product concerned and relabel it using the appropriate marketing authorisation number and manufacturer's trademark.

The judgment arose from a dispute between Aventis and a German parallel importer over packs of Insuman insulin. Insuman is marketed by Aventis in packs of five cartridges in France and packs of 10 in Germany (PJ, 16 March, p352). Aventis argued that the importer should bundle two packs of five cartridges together and overlabel them, while the importer wanted to repackage and relabel the French product in boxes of 10 to match the German presentation.

Don Macarthur, secretary general of the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies (www.eaepc.org), which represents parallel importers, said that companies preferred to use new packaging, rather than to stick labels on foreign language packs, especially if there was a risk to public health from patient confusion or concern.

The full judgment (case C-433/00) can be found in the case law section of the ECJ website