How counterfeit Lipitor gets into the supply line
Dr. Adam Fein of Pembroke Consulting has some commentary ("London Calling: Fake Drugs Get Real") on why it's easier to get counterfeit drugs in the supply chain in Europe. This is a followup to yesterday's post on the same subject:
Of course, the secondary market here in the ex-colonies pales when compared to parallel trade in the EU. Multi-billion parallel trading runs rampant within the EU as authorized wholesalers in countries such as Spain and Greece sell to importers in higher priced countries such as Germany and the UK. Products are often repackaged by intermediaries along this supply chain. Mention pedigree, as I did to some European executives recently, and you will get either a blank stare or a hearty laugh.
EU competition policy hinders manufacturers’ efforts to monitor the distribution channels of their products. Direct restrictions on parallel trade conflict with the principal of European market integration, which allows a product available in one member country to be legally distributed in any other country. As a result, manufacturers face ongoing legal challenges using supply quotas, allocation of available quantities, or refusals to supply as mechanisms to limit purchases for export.
[...]
Bottom line:
Parallel import in Europe is a basically a punitive tax on innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers, with consumers bearing all the risk and getting little of the benefit.
The post as a whole is quite a bit longer, and well worth reading.
(That picture is from the FDA's website — bottles of fake Lipitor in the affected UK lots are much more likely to look like a real bottle of Lipitor — or whatever the UK packaging looks like.)
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, counterfeit drugs, economics, drug pricing[/tags]
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