Top EU court delivers mixed verdict on parallel drugs trading

The European court of justice ruled on Tuesday that a drug company could curb trading in its own products without violating antitrust rules only if it was faced with exceptionally large orders, reports the IHT.

GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's largest drug maker, had attempted to crack down on so-called parallel trading, the practice where wholesalers buy medicines at state-regulated prices in countries like Greece and then resell them in more expensive markets at a profit.

The court ordered that any attempt to stop this practice was going against EU law unless the orders placed were "out of the ordinary in terms of quantity".

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