E-drug: Parallel re-importation of drugs into USA (cont'd)
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What was described is called parallel importing. It is quite common
in Europe, where there is free trade between the different countries.
As the health system differs in each European country, prices of
pharmaceuticals are different. It is quite common to have medicines
made in the UK, exported to France, or Belgium then re-imported
after appropriate re-labelling into English.
I have no doubt that in other European countries, some medicines
are re-imported at lower prices. Not everything is cheaper that way,
but some of the savings are considerable.
Alistair Bolt
Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust
UK
e-mail: alistair.bolt@norfolk-norwich.thenhs.com
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