[bumholio]

I find it doubtful that Atorvastatin was not available for health/risk reasons. I can buy it cash in 5 minutes, no questions asked.

What tends to happen in some EU countries is that the retail drugs are heavily subsidized by the government, and then all kinds of kludges are put in place to prevent people buying bulk quantities and reselling them in some other EU country where the price is much higher - the export itself being 100% legal on the single market.

[Lanthanide]

The subsidy/export explanation does make a lot more sense, since it's not exactly in a high-risk drug class. I suppose those regulations could have been misinterpreted by him to mean he needed a prescription.

(unless Austria, where this happened, really does have very strict OTC drug laws on medical grounds)