Parallel traders and wholesalers
A parallel trade works only if the product is licensed where it is going, still protected or not where it is coming from, and worth the difference after margins. MPA holds all three positions, market by market, with the records behind them.
The questions you face
Which parallel import licences exist for this product, who holds them, and which source countries do they cover?
Is the brand still protected in the destination, for how long, and is a generic launch about to collapse the price there?
What is the published price in each candidate source market, at which rung, and how has it moved?
Which countries restrict export of this product, and where are shortages opening or closing demand?
How MPA helps
The official data, kept current, with the experience to read it. We have done this since 1973.
Licences in source and destination
UK parallel import licences and product licences in full, and European national licences, with holders and cross-references to the originating authorisation.
How long the opportunity lasts
The patent and SPC position in the destination and the source, so the window for a branded import, and the date a generic may arrive, are both known.
Prices you can compare
Published national list prices aligned by price type, so a differential is read on the same rung, with the source reference on each record.
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What to read first
All resources- ExplainersWhy the expiry date is not the launch date in Europe (and what is)A patent or SPC expiry date on a register is the start of the answer, not the end. Between it and the first generic pack on a shelf sit secondary patents, paediatric extensions, regulatory clocks, pricing procedures and litigation, and they differ by country. The steps, in order, and where each one can move the date.
- PricesHow medicine list prices are published across EuropeThere is no European price list. Each country publishes its own, in its own format, showing a different point on the price ladder, on a different schedule, and some publish nothing free at all. A country-by-country map of the official sources, written for people comparing prices across borders.
- PricesEx-factory, wholesale, pharmacy, reimbursementA medicine has at least four prices in every country, and national lists publish different ones. What each means, how they are built from one another, and the two mistakes that account for most bad cross-border comparisons.
- ExplainersMedicine shortage registers in EuropeEvery European country now publishes some record of medicines in short supply, and no two mean the same thing by 'shortage'. The EU-level sources, the national registers and export-restriction lists country by country, what each actually records, and how traders, buyers and planners should read them.
- Case notesRepackaging and rebranding parallel importsA parallel importer may repackage only as far as is objectively necessary to sell in the destination market. Relabelling with a new anti-tampering seal is the default; putting the medicine in a new box is allowed only where relabelled packs would meet strong resistance from a significant part of the market. A generic may be rebranded to the originator's name only where the two products are identical and the rebranding is objectively necessary.
- ExplainersCentralised, decentralised, mutual recognition, nationalA medicine reaches the European market by one of four procedures. Each produces a different kind of authorisation, a different number format, and a different first-authorisation date. What the routes are, how to recognise them from a licence number, and why the route matters for SPC and exclusivity calculations.
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