Reetiquetado y reenvasado de medicamentos: cuestiones de actualidad a la luz de la Doctrina del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea

Abstract

The context of the pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2, as well as the long-term effects of Brexit and the loss of validity of the MRA for medical devices between the European Union and Switzerland, provide an unbeatable scenario for reflecting on a permanently topical issue such as the relabeling and repackaging of medicines. To do this in the light of the Court of Justice’s doctrine on parallel importation, under the perspective of the five BMS conditions, whose decanting will lead to reflection on the need to manipulate the packaging in order to market pharmaceuticals in another State and to avoid the compartmentalization of the market, the insurmountable limit given by the fact of not affecting the original state of the product, the need to identify conveniently the trademark holder and the importer to provide adequate protection of industrial property rights, or, finally, the prior notice of such alteration to the appearance of the packaging which must be given to those who, although they have seen their trademark rights exhausted, retain intact the legal assets to preserve their reputation.