Pharmacy Daily | Sentiment dashed with 60DD impact

THE Attain Pharmacy Market Sentiment Survey shows that the pharmacy business sales market has been significantly impacted by 60-Day Dispensing (60DD), with less than half of pharmacists interested in buying a new pharmacy in the next five years, well down from 63% last year.

The 10th Attain survey, which is run every four months to track market sentiment and pharmacy business sales trends was completed by 89 pharmacists and owners throughout Australia.

Attain Director Natalie Sirianni said, "we know that it has been a stressful year for pharmacists, so we really appreciate the survey respondents taking the time to complete the survey".

Sirianni explained key points from the survey results which included that approximately 44% of pharmacists and current pharmacy owners are looking to buy their first or an additional pharmacy within the next five years, down from approximately 63% in Sep 2022.

Concerningly, over half (56%) of pharmacy owners will be looking to sell their pharmacy, or one of them, within the next five years, with only 6.3% planning to bring in a junior partner instead of selling.

The sentiment was negative too with 41.6% believing that pharmacy business prices will decrease over the next 12 months, and approximately 40.3% believe they will stay flat.

Two-thirds of pharmacy owners identified 'personal and family circumstances' as a key factor that would influence the timing of selling their pharmacy.

Nearly half of the owners are waiting for more data in relation to 60DD and the 8th Community Pharmacy Agreement to help them in their forward planning and decision-making.

Attain stated it donated $10 for each survey response to Pharmacists' Support Service with a total of $890 given.

Sirianni added that while it's been a stressful year for pharmacists, "there is some positive news to take away which is that there is still strong buyer demand, albeit reduced from the highs we experienced during the COVID years". JG