Parallel imports can be repackaged
Parallel importers can repackage branded medicines if they need to do so to gain market acceptability for these products.
After putting questions to the European Court, the Court of Appeal upheld
an earlier High Court judgment against Boehringer Ingelheim, Glaxo Group,
SmithKline Beecham and Eli Lilly.
“Parallel importers are entitled to do more than just render the
packaging lawful for UK marketing,” Lord Justice Jacob ruled. “They
are entitled to replace the packaging if that is what is necessary to
overcome a strong resistance in the market to relabelled boxes.”
The judge rejected the argument that pharmacists could overcome patient
hostility to original packs that are covered with stickers by more explanation. “Poorly
people want their pills, not explanations,” he said, adding: “Pharmacists
have better things to do than explain things to concerned patients.”
Lord Justice Jacob ruled that replacing the brand name on the box with
the non-proprietary name while the brand name still appears on the actual
product or its immediate packaging does not amount to passing off. He
said that there was no evidence that a pharmacist or patient had ever
been deceived. He added that replacement packaging that bears the originator’s
brand name plus the parallel importer’s mark caused no damage to
the claimants’ reputation and exclusivity.
Parallel importing on
the wane Parallel importing into the UK grew
by only 1 per cent from 2002 to 2003. In the previous three years,
growth had been three times greater than that of the pharmaceutical
market overall. The decline is not explained by patent expiries,
according to IMS. Leading brands have shown significant decreases
in trade lost to parallel imports. Even so, parallel imports account
for 19 per cent of UK brand sales.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal