Martin Howe QC appeared (assisting criminal leader Orlando Pownall QC) in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) to argue the points of EU law which arose on the appeal of Hitendra Patel against his conviction for placing a medicinal product on the market without a marketing authorisation. The regulations which created the offence were made under the European Communities Act 1972 and were intended to transpose Directive 2001/83/EC on medicinal products for human use. The Court of Appeal (Hooper LJ, Tomlinson and Swift JJ) accepted that therefore the regulations should be construed consistently with the Directive and that under the Directive the prohibition on placing drugs on the market without an authorisation applied only to drugs intended for supply to end users within the Community. Since the drugs with which the appellant dealt were intended for export from the Community, he had not committed the offence and his conviction would be quashed.
+44(0)20 7405 4321
clerks@8newsquare.co.uk