The craving for cheap drugs has never been greater. For those patients and policymakers in developing countries, the existence of parallel imports is less a concern than a blessing. Yet for pharmaceutical companies themselves, there is the concern that an increasing trade in parallel imports would severely damage research-intensive activities and ultimately slow down the development of the very same drugs that are being traded in ‘grey’ markets today.
Mentioned in the Something Borrowed article, the United States is trying to swing that parallel imports for pharmaceuticals violates the intellectual property of the western drug producers.