Parallel trading

Simulations may also be used to inform understanding of market dynamics and life cycle management and to aid in understanding the ways in which reference pricing and parallel trading may influence the best sequence of drug... 

Price differences between countries owing to regulation and control systems create incentives for parallel trade of pharmaceutical products, whereby drugs from a country with low prices are imported into other countries with higher prices and resold there (see Chapter 5). 

The article by Darba and Rovira13 is an overview of the problem of parallel trade in the EU, extracted from the former s doctoral thesis, and with an additional section on possible future scenarios. 

Rovira, J. (1998), The pros and cons of a single euro-price for drugs and the economics of parallel trade , PharmacoEconomics, 14, 135-36. 

In the 1999 PPRS negotiations, as a part of the agreement, the DoH imposed a 4.5% price reduction on sales to the NHS. This was equivalent to a loss of sales by the industry of 200 million. Because the 1999 revision of the PPRS permits companies to modulate these enforced price reductions across their product range, it could be expected that companies would do so in such a way that competition from parallel-traded products would be reduced, maximum price reductions being applied to those products that were currently being most affected by parallel trade. The 2004 PPRS enforced a 7% price cut on the pharmaceutical industry. 

Bale, H. E. 1998. The Conflicts between Parallel Trade and Product Access and Innovation The... 

Kanavos, P., J. Costa-i-Font, S. Merkur, and M. Gemmill. 2004. The Economic Impact of Pharmaceutical Parallel Trade in European Union Member States. LSE Working Paper. Available at http //www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEHealthAndSocialCare/pdf/Workingpapers/ Paper.pdf [Accessed May 26, 2006]. 

The MEB is going to start to build a public register of all valid PILs. Parallel traders can benefit from this in drafting their text. Until the moment that this register is finished the MEB will inform the MA holder of a parallel traded product of important changes in the PIL and the SPC of the origined product. When, cifter... 

The real worry for pharmaceutical companies has always been the possible extension of parallel trade. The most immediate threat is in Europe, where supply problems have in practice limited it. European wholesalers are mostly oriented to their national markets they are therefore often unable to provide traders with the volume of products desired, and the pharmaceutical companies astutely try to supply each country only with sufficient supplies of a drug to meet its own needs. Early in 2007, Pfizer declared that it... 

The long-term consequences are still unclear. On the one hand, if the decision allows Africa s and Asia s many AIDS sufferers to receive treatment, it cannot be a bad thing. On the other hand, particularly if parallel trade develops and the patent system is undermined, there is a much reduced incentive for companies to invest in treatments for tropical diseases. 

Kanavos P. Globalisation in Pharmaceutical Markets Legal and Economic Implications of Parallel Trade. Richmond, Surrey, U.K. PJB Publications, 2001. Part of PJB s Scrip Reports series, this book provides a legal history of parallel imports and compulsory licensing worldwide. The author examines current practices on a country-by-country basis, includes detailed statistics illustrating the growth of parallel trade, and discusses intellectual property rights and court decisions. As an alternative to hardcopy format, PJB also offers electronic (HTML or PDF) subscriptions to this publication. 

All parallel trading of pharmaceuticals inside the European Union is legal, provided that the following three conditions are fulfilled ... 

The reasoning behind parallel trading is that of the free market and that the best (i.e. lowest) prices can be obtained for any particular pharmaceutical presentation. Having worked in the industry for 36 years, there is one point the author has learnt— Ministries of Health actually control all the prices. 

Over the past several years parallel trading has increased into the highpriced countries (e.g. Holland, Germany) from countries where the prices are lower (e.g. Greece, Belgium and Spain). Included in this trading have been products that are... 

---