Pharmacy Daily | ACCC’s RAT rates wide of the mark

CLAIMS that wholesale prices for COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) are between $3.82 and $11.42, do not tally with reality, Pharmacy Guild of Australia Western Australian Branch President, Andrew Ngeow, says.

He noted that the figures reported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in its latest RAT pricing update, were based on information from the period from 29 Dec 2021 to 14 Jan.

"The figure of $3.82 is so far removed from the situation in WA that it's not funny," he said.

"We need to remember that until 10 Jan, WA prohibited the use of RATs which, unless exempted, could result in fines of up to $20,000 for an individual and $100,000 for businesses.

"Since 10 Jan however, pharmacies across WA have been inundated with requests for RATs although given the level of Australia-wide demand, many will not have the supply to fully meet patients' needs for perhaps a month.

"Western Australians are both nervous about the looming entry of COVID-19 into the State and frustrated that they are unable to obtain RATs.

"Pharmacies are doing what they can to secure supplies of RATs and quite frankly, they don't need this type of misinformation being put out by the ACCC.

"All Western Australian pharmacies would welcome immediate access to RATs at under four dollars a unit, that is very unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future."

Meanwhile, the ACCC update noted that since 25 Dec 2021, the community pharmacy sector has attracted the highest volume of complaints relating to RAT pricing.

Of the 1,309 reports made about RAT prices in pharmacies to the consumer watchdog up until 26 Jan, more than half related to tests being sold for between $15 and $25, with the average price in pharmacies currently around $21 per test.

ACCC Chair, Rod Sims noted that the Commission had been in contact with the head offices of IGS and BP, after high numbers of reports of tests being sold for more than $30 each.

However, he noted that the complaints were "limited to a small number of individual stores in these chaings, and the majority of stores in those chains had not been the subject of complaints".