PHARMACY Guild president George Tambassis has "unreservedly and unconditionally" withdrawn incorrect statements made in letters to Medicines Australia (MA) and the Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association of Australia (GBMA) (PD 10 Aug) in relation to the procurement practices of Ramsay Health Limited.
The letters alleged that Ramsay Health may be using hospital medicines purchasing contracts to supply community pharmacies in the Ramsay Pharmacy Group, with Tambassis claiming this would "run contrary to the longstanding requirement by suppliers that there be separate purchasing arrangements for hospital & community pharmacies".
A strongly worded response from Medicines Australia ceo Milton Catelin rejected the Guild's response for information on the practices of MA members, saying his role "most emphatically does not involve policing the terms of trade of our members in their dealings with their customers".
Catelin added that the request amounts to "an invitation advanced collectively on behalf of your members to engage in unlawful conduct by or on behalf of our members directed toward the terms of supply or supply at all to a specific entity.
"If so, that invitation itself may be unlawful and for Medicines Australia to give effect to it may be too", he said, requesting no further correspondence on the matter.
The GBMA also responded to Tambassis, warning that if it acceded to the Guild request for information on the activities of members in relation to supply of products to Ramsay and other groups it could be at risk of engaging in conduct breaching the Competition and Consumer Act.
In a humbling response from Tambassis, the Guild formally withdrew "any suggestion that Ramsay Health Care's purchasing arrangements for Ramsay badged pharmacies breach any legal or other requirements.
"We wish to stress...that suppliers should, and should continue to, make their own decisions independently," Tambassis added.
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