34It is for the national authorities responsible for the operation of the legislation governing the production and marketing of medicinal products — legislation which, as is made clear in the first recital of Directive 65/65, has as its primary objective the safeguarding of public health — to ensure that it is fully complied with. Nevertheless, the principle of proportionality, which is the basis of the last sentence of Article 30 EC, requires that the power of the Member States to prohibit imports of products from other Member States be restricted to what is necessary in order to achieve the aims concerning the protection of health that are legitimately pursued (see Case 174/82 Sandoz [1983] ECR 2445, paragraph 18). Thus, national legislation or practice cannot benefit from the derogation laid down in Article 30 EC when the health and life of humans can be protected equally effectively by measures less restrictive of intra-Community trade.
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