The Grey Market for Pharmaceuticals: An invisible system between supply, risk and regulation

What happens when vital medicines suddenly go missing? When medicines are diverted across national borders, bypassing official controls, repackaged, sold at a higher price or distributed digitally? Behind many of these movements lies the so-called gray market - a global network of legal, semi-legal and difficult-to-control structures that is increasingly gaining influence and challenging healthcare and economic systems alike.
This book provides a systematic analysis of the global gray market for pharmaceuticals. It sheds light on the economic, legal, political and ethical background, analyzes international trade dynamics, regulatory asymmetries, digital forms of distribution and health economic effects. At the same time, concrete strategies for the containment and control of gray market structures are presented - at both national and international level.
An interdisciplinary reference work for experts in healthcare, politics, pharmacy, law, economics and public administration - and a contribution to the debate on the future of global drug supply.
Bremen University Press has published over 4,500 reference books in various languages over the past 11 years.
1st edition 2025