New EU Internal Market and Industry Commissioner says parallel trade is lawful

In September Enrico Gasbarra, a newly-elected Italian Member of the European Parliament (BEP) from the S&D, submitted a written question to the Commission on parallel trade. He alleges parallel distribution to be the cause for quotas to be established and shortages of medicines to occur.

Specifically, according to a website posting by the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, he asks the European Commission to take a position on whether the adoption of a uniform price in Europe could be a solution to avoid disparities between European markets and whether it would be ready to push for the adoption of the transparency directive that is currently stuck in Council.

Last week, EU Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska answered the question, underlining that the Commission does not “interfere with the organization of national health insurance schemes, including the measures regulating the prices of medicinal products and their inclusion in the scope of national health insurance systems.”