Economic impact of parallel trade on the selected pharmaceutical markets in the European Union

One of the basic principles of European Union – free movement of goods, makes the phenomena of parallel trade in the pharmaceutical market possible. Access to all medicines, including access to the most effective therapies is very important for public health. There are two important aspects strongly influencing access: drugs affordability and the presence of products in the market. The latter can be sometimes jeopardized by an excessive parallel export. Access to the newest pharma-ceutical technologies can positively influence quality of life of the society and thus, in the longer term, can trigger many positive consequences for particular markets and for the whole EU. The aim of this article is to present the economic effects of parallel trade in the pharmaceutical markets in EU. Economic factors influencing presence, form and scale of parallel trade are presented, as well as its’ macro and microeconomic consequences.