PARALLEL IMPORTS OF MEDICINES (DRUGS) IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA - COMPETITION LAW ISSUES

Abstract

As from the beginning of 2012, in the Republic of Macedonian, a legal framework was created for parallel imports of medicines. This regulatory reform raised a lot of dilemmas. Namely, the government wanted to make drugs (either branded or generic) more available, affordable and accessible, for as much as of the general public with reasonable prices, by reducing at the same time the governmental spending, according to its own healthcare policy. On the other hand, authorized drug wholesalers for a long time were facing negative publicity by making huge profits on the pharmaceutical market. Finally, the parallel imports possibility deteriorated the existing producer - distributor relations on the market. Exclusive distributors feel frustrated with the possibility of an additional potential competition and they expect producers to take some remedies in order to eliminate or to restrict this competition. In this Article, we expect to clarify some of these dilemmas and give comparative view of the solutions existing in other countries.