Pfizer dissatisfaction grows
November 3, 2011
AUSTRALIAN pharmacists are
growing ever more dissatisfied with
the exclusive direct-to-pharmacy
distribution system introduced by
Pfizer in February this year, according
to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
The comments are based on a
major online survey of Pharmacy
Guild members which was
designed to gauge their current
views in relation to the issue
including pharmacists’ perception
of Pfizer and DHL’s performance
and the number of patients
adversely affected by the Pfizer
Direct model.
A total of 911 pharmacies
contributed to the survey,
reporting that 8,194 patients were
adversely impacted by the Pfizer
direct model in the past month
alone, averaging out at around
nine patients per pharmacy.
One Australian pharmacy
reported 79 adverse incidents for
the month.
In terms of comparing Pfizer’s
March 2011 performance with its
September 2011 performance 21%
said it had improved, 59% said it
had stayed the same and 18% said
it had gotten worse.
DHL fared little better with 15%
of pharmacists saying its
performance had improved, 66%
saying it remained much the same
and 17% saying it was worse.
88% of Australian pharmacies
also said that the Pfizer direct
distribution model had increased
patient waiting time.
The top three remedies
nominated by pharmacies for
improvement of the Pfizer
arrangements included: for the
Government to require all PBS
manufacturers to supply PBS
medicines to full-line wholesalers,
while allowing the manufacturer to
also supply directly if they choose
(74%); the removal of delivery
charges (60%) and for all
manufacturers to supply all
branded PBS medicines to all fullline
wholesalers, while allowing
manufacturers to also supply direct.
In light of the findings the Guild
has now forwarded survey results
to the Federal Government for
consideration.
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