Legal and Economic Analysis of Medicine Purchased Oversea

Abstract

In recent years, the phenomenon of purchasing medicine abroad has gradually increased. In particular, it has resulted in major cases with great social influence, such as the case of “Lu Yong Selling Counterfeit Medicine”. It has sparked an intense debate on the legality of oversea purchase of medicine. Although the treatment expense is greatly reduced for the patients, oversea purchase of medicine is suspected to undermine intellectual property protection. Finding a balance between “inspiring pharmaceutical companies to innovate” and “making it affordable to patients” is the key to solve the problem of oversea purchase of medicine. Based on the analysis of the positive and negative effects of overseas purchase of medicine, this paper proposes the principle of “consideration of protection and antitrust”, which not only protects the intellectual property rights of the medicine, but also prevents companies from abusing intellectual property rights.