Commission vindicates Denmark over parallel import restrictions

The European Commission has arrived at what the Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Lif) calls a 'balanced decision' over the case of renaming or relabelling parallel-imported medicines in Denmark.

The question arose last July when the parallel import industry put pressure on the European Commission to challenge Danish practices regarding the naming of parallel-imported medicines and alleged restriction of market access.

In response the Danish health ministry decided that a parallel-imported medicine should adopt the trademark name used in Denmark if it was known by another name in the country where the parallel importers had bought the product.

According to a Lif statement, this would be 'an infringement of the trademark right, and that such a rule could not be explained by taking into account the patient safety'.

After further discussions between the Danish government and the Commission, an agreement was reached, which Lif says 'implies that parallel imported pharmaceuticals alone must be renamed and marketed in consideration of the trademark right'.

Jan Hylleberg, deputy director at Lif said: 'The parallel importers were unable to argue objectively and professionally for their demands on the right to change the name on the parallel-imported pharmaceuticals. Therefore we are pleased that the Commission did not bow to the parallel importers' heavy political pressure.

'In recent years we have presented figures that show that the parallel importers have free access to the market, regardless of the name of the parallel imported product. In other words, it is the dispensing and reimbursement rules that secure the parallel importers' access to the market not depend on the name of the parallel-imported product.

'Therefore it is not necessary for the parallel importers to rename/relabel a pharmaceutical product in Denmark in order to sell it. It is the price that is crucial for the volume of the sales - nothing else,' Hylleberg stated, pointing out that since the change of the reimbursement rules in April 2005 parallel-imported products have obtained an increased market share.