European Health Policy and National Regulation of Pharmaceutical Markets

The EU is of growing importance for national health policy. Especially the EU´s impact on national organizational competencies for health care systems has been increased by recent European Court of Justice decisions. The aim of the project is to analyze the impact of EU policy on national health care systems and in particular on national actors in the pharmaceutical sector. This task requires the identification of centers of decision in the policy formulation process and the analysis of the formulation of positions by the member states and non state actors. Of particular concern is the institutionalization of permanent negotiation systems, in which the involved actors negotiate on the future role of the EU level for health care systems. Specifically, the project aimed at (a)an analytical narrative of the initiation and establishment of the European level negotiation system on the completion of the Single Market for Pharmaceuticals as an example of an international negotiation system in statu nascendi, (b) at explaining the positions of the participating member states, pharmaceutical enterprises and societal actors by deriving them from objective data, and (c) at using this information to explain the substantive results and the degree of institutionalization reached in the negotiations.