Pharmacy Daily | Guild’s 90th anniversary

THIS week marks exactly 90 years since the first National Council meeting of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

The gathering took place 20-24 Aug 1928 in Sydney, with the organisation at the time comprising a total of 512 members.

The Guild was formed, in part, to tackle the "sudden rise of aggressive marketing by 'company' pharmacies which saw special pricing, sole distributorships and other tactics emerge," according to a Guild update issued this week.

"From its inception the Guild has always sought the best methods and the best tools to use in representing the interests of its members," the Guild said.

The update noted that one of the biggest innovations overseen by the Guild has been the introduction of the successive five-year Community Pharmacy Agreements, which aim to optimise the distribution of pharmacy services around the country, as well as providing business certainty for community pharmacy owners.

"We will soon be entering the negotiating phase for the seventh agreement, which will be vastly different from our initial 1990s deal and will be one which reflects the changing environment in which pharmacies operate today," the Guild said.

The update concluded that the Guild is fully committed to supporting and maintaining the current community pharmacy model as the "most appropriate and efficient system of delivering medicines, medication management and related services to the Australian public".