Trabalho Final de Mestrado Integrado, Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia, 2017 ; Medicine shortages have consistently been causing considerable and worrying impact among health systems and hence patients in European Union (EU) and all across the world. Simultaneously, Pharmaceutical Parallel Trade (PPT) has also been recently subject of huge attention and controversy within the broader plan of the discussion regarding the envisioned single european market of medicines. A holistic analysis of the current regulatory and economic frameworks closely related to these two concepts has brought up the intention of performing an insightful evaluation on the dynamic correlation between them; on how one might play a role either as a cause or a consequence of the other, how they affect the performance of healthcare services and then holistically looking at how National Competent Authorities (NCA) manage their efforts and mechanisms to provide effective answers, avoiding further negative impact. Access to quatitative evidence of the due clinical and economic impact remains a national and international challenge. Nevertheless, this investigation points to the strengthening of the logical assumption that parallel trade has a higher potential of impacting the national supply chain of countries with lower prices on medicines, as is the case of Portugal. In The Netherlands, despite evidenced efforts, regulatory focus and measures towards this practice to prevent shortages seem less robust than is the case with Portugal. ; As falhas de abastecimento de medicamentos têm causado considerável e preocupante impacto ao nível dos sistemas de saúde - e, portanto, aos doentes – da União Europeia de do Mundo. Simultaneamente, e em particular no contexto europeu, o comércio paralelo de medicamentos tem sido alvo de aumentada enfoque e controvérsia no seio do plano alargado de discussão a respeito do mercado único de produtos farmacêuticos. O presente trabalho propõe uma análise holística da conjuntura ...