A. Menarini Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite Srl and Others v Ministero della Salute and Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-352/07), Sanofi Aventis SpA v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-353/07), IFB Stroder Srl v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-354/07), Schering Plough SpA v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-355/07), Bayer SpA v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) and Ministero della Salute (C-356/07), Simesa SpA v Ministero della Salute and Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-365/07), Abbott SpA v Ministero della Salute and Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-366/07), Baxter SpA v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) (C-367/07) and SALF SpA v Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) and Ministero della Salute (C-400/07).
Date: 2009-04-02
19. It must be noted, as a preliminary point, that Community law does not detract from the power of the Member States to organise their social security systems and to adopt, in particular, provisions intended to govern the consumption of pharmaceutical products in order to promote the financial stability of their health‑care insurance schemes (Case 238/82 Duphar and Others  [1984] ECR 523, paragraph 16; Case C‑249/88 Commission  v Belgium  [1991] ECR I‑1275, paragraph 31; Joined Cases C‑159/91 and C‑160/91 Poucet and Pistre  [1993] ECR I‑637, paragraph 6; Case C‑70/95 Sodemare and Others  [1997] ECR I‑3395, paragraph 27; Case C‑158/96 Kohll  [1998] ECR I‑1931, paragraph 17; Case C‑245/03 Merck, Sharp & Dohme  [2005] ECR I‑637, paragraph 28; and Case C‑141/07 Commission  v Germany  [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 22).
20. However, in exercising that power the Member States must comply with Community law (see Kohll , paragraph 19, and Commission  v Germany , paragraph 23).
26. The purpose of Directive 89/105, according to Article 1 thereof, is to ensure that any national measure to control the prices of medicinal products for human use or to restrict the range of medicinal products covered by their national sickness insurance systems complies with the requirements of that directive (Case C‑424/99 Commission  v Austria  [2001] ECR I-9285, paragraph 30; Case C‑229/00 Commission  v Finland  [2003] ECR I‑5727, paragraph 37; Case C‑317/05 Pohl-Boskamp  [2006] ECR I‑10611, paragraph 25; and Case C‑311/07 Commission  v Austria  [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 29).
27. According to the fifth recital in its preamble, the main purpose of Directive 89/105 is to ensure transparency of pricing, including the manner in which it operates in individual cases and the criteria on which it is based ( Pohl-Boskamp , paragraph 29).
28. Moreover, according to the sixth recital in its preamble, ensuring the effectiveness of the directive requires that the persons concerned can verify that the official entry of medicinal products on the list corresponds to objective criteria and that there is no discrimination between national medicinal products and those from other Member States ( Commission  v Finland , paragraph 39).
36. It follows that Directive 89/105 has as its underlying principle the idea of minimum interference in the organisation by Member States of their domestic social security policies (see Merck, Sharp & Dohme , paragraph 27).