In Europe it is worth six billion euros, 8% of the overall pharmaceutical market, and has been growing steadily for several years, because most of the states of the Union encourage and facilitate it. We are talking about the "parallel trade", a phenomenon which in the pharmaceutical sector is increasingly causing tensions and conflicts between operators in the supply chain. In Italy, the climax was reached last winter, when some regional Federfarma denounced the quota restrictions on some products to the press, relating them to parallel exports. But white-hot controversies are also registered in other European countries: in France, where out-of-stocks are recorded in more than the 90% of the pharmacies, the owners accuse the distributors of leaving them dry to favor parallel exports and the wholesalers, in turn, are angry with the industry which would limit supplies to favor direct sales and cut out intermediaries. Across the Channel, however, it is the distributors (through the Bapw, British association of pharmaceutical wholesalers) who accuse pharmacies of increasingly engaging in "parallel trade". In short, we are in a scuffle and this does not help us understand. Better then to turn to the experts: Farmacista33 went to knock on the door of Fabrizio Gianfrate, professor of health and pharmaceutical economics at Luiss in Rome and author of several studies on the phenomenon of parallel trade.
Let's start with a snapshot of the phenomenon: why and where?
«The reason is easy: parallel trade thrives on the price differences that the same products have between different European countries, differences largely determined by the fact that the drug market is a hyper-regulated market, where prices are administered or negotiated. Furthermore, many states nurture and encourage parallel trade, because in this way they reduce spending: in Germany, for example, pharmacists are required to dispense a quota of medicines from abroad every year. It is also easy to answer where: Greece, Italy and Spain are the main exporting countries, Germany and Great Britain are the ones that import most often».
It is a widespread impression that in Italy the phenomenon is growing. How much is the share of exports attributable to our country?
«It is growing without a doubt. Difficult to quantify however, the parallel market does not allow for detailed analyses. It is known for certain that Greece alone supplies about 20% of exports».
How much does the erosion of profits suffered by distributors and pharmacies in recent years weigh on the Italian phenomenon?
"Very, very much. I believe that it is mainly the wholesalers who support parallel trade: I happened to speak with operators who admitted in no uncertain terms that they were able to survive only thanks to parallel trade».
Is it so convenient to export?
«Keep in mind that those who resell in a foreign country almost entirely pocket the difference in price between the country of exit and the country of entry. And we are talking about differences also of the 50%. In the country of arrival, the distributor resells everything that remains at a price slightly lower than the local one, if he pockets it or shares it with the local wholesaler with whom he mediates».
It is said that in Italy drugs cost less than 20%…
"On average. But it should be borne in mind that a dozen products
