Published on 8 February 2022

Int he beginning of December 2021 Hoffmann-La-Roche contacted BModesto. Roche experienced a short term shortage of the cancer drug Herceptin®️ (chemical name: Trastuzumab) 600mg designated for Dutch hospitals.

Herceptin®️ is a crucial medicine voor hospitals to have in stock. The drug is used for treatment of early and advanced stages of different cancer types.

The shortage on Herceptin®️ was expected to last 2 weeks. This was to long for an imporant cancer drug. For this reason Roche needed a temporary solution to bridge this period.

At the moment Roche noticed there was shortage for Dutch hospitals they contacted BModesto. As Dutch-based and independent specialist in parallel import, BModesto could be there go-to for a solution.

When it comes to Roche’s cancer drug, BModesto has imported stock in their warehouse used for clinical trial purposes. The problem was that BModesto did not hold a Parallel Imports License for Herceptin®️.

With the approval of Roche, BModesto asked the HYCI (Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate) for dispensation. Within 24 hours BModesto received approval for the supply of Herceptin®️ to Dutch hospitals without a Parallel Imports License. BModesto was now able to supply and distribute for a two-week period to all Dutch hospitals directly in accordance with Roche.

BModesto made sure all the packaging and prescriptions are in Dutch before they were distributed to the concerned hospitals. During this two-week period, Roche referred all their received Herceptin®️ orders to BModesto. One day after approval, BModesto already delivered the first packs.

Roche was very pleased with the quickness of BModesto’s actions as this is a good example of how Parallel Import can solve urgent shortages in EU markets.

Access to Medicine‘s mission statement is to battle shortages on drugs in the EU market. This in collaboration with parallel trade. Access to Medicine: ‘Only parallel distribution has the infrastructure and resources to quickly fill those gaps’.

Want to know more about the benefits of parallel trade? Read it here.