(Bloomberg) -- Drugmakers can't hand out free samples of prescription medicines to pharmacies, the European Union's top court said in a dispute between a Novartis AG unit and generic drug maker Ratiopharm.
Pharmacies can only receive free samples of products that don't require a prescription, the EU Court of Justice said Thursday in a binding decision. The German Federal Court of Justice had sought the EU judges' guidance after having doubts as to what's allowed under the bloc's laws.
Novartis Consumer Health GmbH, which makes the pain relief gel Voltaren sought to block Ratiopharm from offering free samples of its own gel to drug stores. In the course of 2013, Ratiopharm sales representatives sent free 100-gram packs of the gel to German pharmacies, with the label “for demonstration purposes.”
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