The Pharmaceutical Parallel Trade Outlook: Challenges to pharmaceutical companies across Europe and the US

Executive Summary

The Pharmaceutical Parallel Trade Outlook: Challenges to pharmaceutical companies across Europe and the US, analyzes parallel trade market dynamics, reviews the latest regulatory and pricing controls in the EU and US, and assesses the drivers and resistors of parallel trade in 2004. The two main areas this report focuses on are; the implications for pharmaceutical companies of the expansion of the EU in May 2004 and the fear of parallel trade taking greater hold on the US pharmaceutical market. The former is a major development since it will open up several more low-priced countries as sources of parallel traded drugs. The latter has made some big pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer and GSK, limit the volume of drugs they supply to Canada, as parallel trade between the two countries is now legal. In addition, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that price differences alone are insufficient to drive PT. Other driving forces include supportive regulatory frameworks, patient populations and reduced transport costs.