European court annuls EU ban on Glaxo's dual pricing system

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2006

LUXEMBOURG (AFP) — Pharmaceuticals company Glaxo Wellcome won a victory in the EU courts over its attempts to stop drug wholesalers from re-exporting its medicines at high profits. The ruling is a blow to such 'parallel' trading, and a boost to major pharmaceutical companies' attempts to prevent wholesalers from pocketing drug profits through such price mark-ups.

The European Court of Justice's court of first instance partially overturned a 2001 ruling by the European Commission which prohibited Glaxo from charging different prices to its Spanish wholesalers depending on the final destination of the drugs. Glaxo was keen to stop its shipments to Spain, where the drugs were sold relatively cheaply, from being sold on by the wholesalers at high profits for themselves,...