Are national drug expenditure control policies compatible with a single European market?

Abstract

Turning a set of independent national markets into a single market is by no means an easy undertaking, especially when the original situation is characterised by a high level of public intervention, as is the case in the drug markets. This article describes the recent trends and the present situation with regard to public intervention in the Spanish drug market, and the conflicts faced in the process of integration into the single European market. The main conclusion is that building a single market should not only mean the elimination of trade barriers among the countries concerned, but that it also necessitates addressing the problems derived from the regulatory policies applied by the national authorities of member states, which may conflict with the working of a single market.