Differential Pricing of Pharmaceuticals Inside Europe: Exploring Compulsory Licenses and Exhaustion for Access to Patented Essential Medicines

This book discusses the policies of price differentiation for life saving drugs in Europe. It documents two different things: a legal expert opinion and the contributions to a conference held in Bremen in October 2008. The point of departure is the question of whether or not compulsory licenses can legally be utilized for improving access to essential medicines in countries with a small GDP, particularly affected by specific diseases, exemplified in Bulgaria, Romania, and Estonia. Central to the legal opinion are the market effects of a Member State's compulsory license for the internal market. A central finding is that the effects will depend on the type of the compulsory license. In line with the Pharmon-doctrine of the European Court of Justice, the exhaustion of patent rights is, in principle, limited to the territory of the issuing State. However, the expertise identifies several constellations under which the marketing will result into Community wide exhaustion. The contributions