The European Union Drug Strategy for the period 2009–12 sets the goal to yield concrete and identifiable improvements concerning the knowledge of drugs trafficking. In addition, the EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009–12 defines among others the objectives to develop key-indicators of policy-relevant data on drug markets, as well as a strategy to collect them. This Pilot study on wholesale drug markets aims to contribute to this process, starting by discussing the utility of collecting wholesale drug prices in Europe. In order to assess the feasibility of this collection process, this study provides an overview of the procedures implemented nationally and of the information available in European countries on wholesale drug prices.

Table of contents:
• Introduction
• Defining wholesale drug prices
• ‘Need to know approach’: Why collect wholesale drug prices?
• Enhancing the utility of collecting wholesale drug prices
• Data availability in Europe, at national level
• The Questionnaire on wholesale drug prices
• Results from two rounds of data collection (2008 and 2009 data)
• National overviews of collection procedures
• Conclusions

• Online annexes
o European drug wholesale prices 2008
o European drug wholesale prices 2009
o European drug wholesale prices (sample submission), examples