Pharmacy Daily | Pfizer to bypass wholesalers

PFIZER has announced a major change in its distribution strategy in Australia, with prescription medications to be sold directly to pharmacies from 31 Jan 2011. The change, according to Pfizer, is designed to “meet the needs of the evolving healthcare environment within Australia including current and future Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme reforms, as well as the upcoming patent expiry of a number of Pfizer medicines. “ Pfizer also stressed that the move would enable it to build stronger relationships with community pharmacy, which will be supported by the expansion of its customer service team to include a dedicated pharmacy field force. “In order to develop stronger partnerships with pharmacists and better adapt to the changing environment, we have decided that a dedicated field force with specific pharmacy experience and a direct distribution model for all our prescription medicines sold into community pharmacy are critical,” explained Pfizer Australia Managing Director, John Latham. The pharmacy field team commenced operations this month, and throughout Dec will be calling into pharmacies to explain the changes (and walk them through the account sign-up process) before the system goes live on 31 Jan. To handle its community pharmacy distribution, Pfizer has appointed its Pfizer Direct distributor, DHL - but both Pfizer and have stressed that they will not be pursuing a share of the Community Service Obligation funding pool for Pfizer products. Pfizer has also said that its new business model will only impact the ordering of prescription medicines into community pharmacies, and that Pfizer medicines sold into hospitals as well as consumer healthcare and nutritional products will continue to be distributed as per usual. MEANWHILE the move looks to be set to significantly impact wholesalers, with Sigma Pharmaceuticals this morning warning that the “Pfizer Direct” model would see its annual wholesaling revenues decrease by 10-15% from February next year. “The full impact on future earnings is being assessed,” the company said, but warned that the move, combined with the recent PBS Reform legislation, “will accelerat e the need for Sigma to further reduce its customer trading terms”. Australian Pharmaceutical Industries also issued an ASX statement, saying it was “is in the process of analysing the implications of this decision”. And Symbion Pharamacy Services says it’s “extremely disappointed” at the Pfizer move, with ceo Patrick Davies saying it would force the firm to “immediately review its pricing structure”. He warned that Symbion would also now review the “ranging and support for the remaining Pfizer and Wyeth products in its business.”

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