API: CHF concerns invalid
July 10, 2014
Australian Pharmaceutical
Industries (API) has said the
concerns of the Consumer Health
Forum (CHF) expressed in its
submission to the Competition
Policy Review were invalid due to
incorrect assertions.
CHF said in its submission that
it had concerns regarding the
exacerbation of conflicts of interest
under the Community Pharmacy
Agreement (CPA) between
wholesalers and retailers, saying
API had links to Alphapharm and
owned Priceline, Soul Pattinson,
Chemworld and Pharmacist Advice.
“These ownership arrangements
mean that full-line distributors
and drug manufacturers are
receiving payments under the CPA
to review the medication regimes
of patients, and that consumers
are unknowingly providing
personal and clinical information to
pharmaceutical companies.
“Such ownership structures are
akin to vertical integration and
encourage profiteering at the
expense of consumer outcomes.”
API said it did not own the retail
pharmacy outlets, that Chemworld
had not operated since 2007 and
API had no share in the profits
made by pharmacists.
“API has a normal commercial
arrangement as a distributor of
Alphapharm products, as do other
wholesalers.
“No other agreement or
arrangement exists between API
and Alphapharm.”
MEANWHILE both the CHF and
Chemist Warehouse submissions
called for consideration of
pharmacy location and ownership
rules, with Chemist Warehouse’s
submission saying the restrictions
on who could own pharmacies
were “archaic”, with such
constraints creating financial
instability that was “more likely to
threaten than secure the ability of
the industry to continue to provide
equitable access to medicine over
the medium term.”
The submission said the
conditions needed for new
pharmacies to be established could
be described as “bizarre” and taken
together, represented a distortion
of the market.
To read the CHF submission, CLICK
HERE and HERE for the Chemist
Warehouse submission.
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