Pharmacy cashflow crisis
March 11, 2016
IMPLEMENTATION of the
federal government’s additional
PBS reform savings as agreed to
in the Sixth Community Pharmacy
Agreement (6CPA) negotiations
place enormous cashflow and stock
control burdens on community
pharmacies, according to Pharmacy
Guild of Australia executive director
David Quilty.
Writing in Forefront, Quilty said
that from 01 Apr, the government
will for the first time reduce the
price of a large number of F1 brand
medicines by 5% as well as making
very large price reductions to
combination medicines.
“These reductions will be in
addition to the normal round of
Simplified Price Disclosure price
reductions,” he pointed out.
The 01 Oct exclusion of originator
brands of drugs, that have been F2
for more than three years, from the
weighted average price calculations
will add even more downward
pressure to off-patent medicine
pricing, he said.
This all means that pharmacies
will need to reduce stock holding
of many of these products, which
would have been purchased in bulk
deals, before the 01 Apr deadline.
Quilty expressed disappointment
that the Apr pricing cuts were not
released earlier, to extend the
business courtesy to pharmacies
to allow sufficient time to work
constructively with wholesalers and
medicine suppliers in managing the
transition to the new prices.
On the cashflow front, Quilty
highlighted that the high cost of
the new hepatitis C therapies (over
$22,000 for Harvoni, over $19,000
for Sovaldi and nearly $8,000 for
Daklinza) creates a serious cashflow
challenge for pharmacists, including
in relation to GST remittances.
Quilty said the Guild has called
upon the government to urgently
address these cash flow issues.
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