Page 36 - THE ROMANIAN HEALTH CARE

Table 5.2 - Romanian import of pharmaceutical products
Code Description 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

3001 Dried glands and other organs 10 1 1 1 1

3002 Blood products 356 351 308 308 402
3003 Medicines in bulk 11 6 7 5 7

3004 Medicines in doses 2,173 2,161 2,163 2,314 2,429
3005 Dressing materials 14 16 16 16 18

3006 Other pharmaceuticals 44 40 42 48 50

Total import pharmaceutical products 2,609 2,576 2,537 2,693 2,907

Source: Trade Map, unit: EUR million

Competition in the export of pharmaceutical products to Romania comes from the countries

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with the largest market share . The countries and their market share that export medicines

in doses to Romania are: Germany 16%; Hungary 15%; The Netherlands 11%. For blood

products: Switzerland 22%; Germany 18%; The Netherlands 13%; United Kingdom 12%.

Parallel trade

Romania imports medicines in doses for an impressive 2.4bn euro in 2017. But Romania also

considerable amount of medicines: 699m euro in 2017. It does so while having a

exports a

modest domestic production - in paragraph 5.2.3 Pharmaceutical production - it was found

that the 10 largest Romanian medicine producers have a combined turnover of 610m euro.

This would imply that the total Romanian medicine production is exported.

In reality the large medicine export is due to parallel trade. Medicines and medical devices are

registered with The National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices, that also sets their

prices for the Romanian market. The prices are often set at a level below many other markets,

in western and eastern Europe. This is exploited by distributors re-exporting medicines

imported in

Romania to countries with a higher price level. The main destinations for

medicine exports from Romania in 2017 are: Germany: EUR 114.2m; Russian Federation EUR

88.2m; United Kingdom EUR 64.1m; Poland 57.6m; The Netherlands 25.8m.

The European Commission has set up infringement cases against Romania, Poland and

Slovakia’s parallel trade. Recently these cases were closed on the basis that parallel trade is

not prohibited because of free movement of goods and services within the EU. However, the

commission also expressed its concerns about the availability of medicines as a consequence

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of parallel trade .

The parallel trade has serious implications for Romanian society. The outflow of medicines

results in shortages of certain medicines, patients not receiving the medicines they need. Also

18 Competition comes essentially from other companies and not from countries. As statistics are unavailable on

an individual company level, the aggregated numbers are the best indicator.

19 https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=278e89e2-5b83-4b8d-a8e8-701f1d10ad84
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