CHEMIST Warehouse has blasted the Pharmacy Location Rules in Australia as "antiquated, anti-competitive and nonsensical".
In a submission to the consultation on the interim report of the Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation (CLICK HERE), Chemist Warehouse's Damien Gance argues removing the rules would immediately free up the company to bring its "competitive medicine pricing to many of the communities whom we are currently unable to serve".
Gance said Chemist Warehouse believed it should be free to pass on to the consumer any economies of scale, efficiency gains or other savings it is able to achieve through its processes, its buying or its supply chain.
The Chemist Warehouse response warns that options proposed relating to separation of complementary medicines from other medications are "bordering on unworkable".
The company noted an option in the Review report which would see pharmacies fill the "education gap" by giving consumers understanding of TGA approval processes for CMs.
Just as supermarkets do not display signage on the Heart Foundation 'tick of approval', and whitegoods retailers don't have to explain the energy rating system, "neither should it be beholden upon pharmacy to display signage explaining the workings of the TGA".
The wide-ranging response also covers the CSO, professional services and the Guild-run Quality Care Pharmacy Program - which costs Chemist Warehouse more to access because its pharmacies are not members of the Guild.
The company urged that a truly independent agency be used to oversee quality standards in pharmacy, warning that the Guild's "sovereignty" over the QCPP was an unacceptable risk to the firm.
Gance also contends the group should be included in any future Community Pharmacy Agreement negotiations, because its interests are not represented by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia nor any other body suggested in the report.
"Given the current and growing proportion of Australian medicine sales and that of PBS supply which Chemist Warehouse represents, it is important that Chemist Warehouse have a voice at the table," he said.
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