Pharmacy Daily | Questions over Blackmores

PHARMACISTS’ union APESMA has struck out at the new Companions Range launched by Blackmores last week (PD 22 Sep), saying the move may put pharmacists in violation of the Health Professionals Registration legislation. The point of contention in the legislation, according to APESMA, arises because of a protection in the law “that an employee pharmacist cannot be directed by the owner to be involved in any unprofessional conduct, which would include pressuring the public to buy vitamins they may not need”. This protection comes into conflict with the GuildCare professional service software prompt which appears when patients fill a script for a particular medicine suitable for the Companion’s range, APESMA said. “We are deeply concerned that pharmacists are increasingly being asked to put their expertise and professional ethics aside by pharmacy owners more interested in making money than doing what is in the best interests for the individual patient,” APESMA’s CEO Chris Walton said. “No pharmacist should be forced to recommend products without an individual diagnosis being performed and without a clear body of scientific research demonstrating the benefits for the individual patient,” Walton added. The pharmacists’ union also struck out at the Pharmacy Guild of Australia for its support of the products saying the Guild was “clearly more interested in profit than patients”. “We urge all pharmacists to continue to put their patients first,” the statement added. The Pharmacy Guild has however hit back at these claims saying “Unfortunately, APESMA is again engaging in ill-informed scaremongering”. “There is no ‘new deal which requires pharmacists to market’ any product [and] there is not and never would be any direction from the Guild for pharmacists to be involved in unprofessional conduct”. Clarifying its position the Guild said that each product carries the Gold Cross logo, and that there is no compulsion whatsoever for pharmacists to sell the range. “There is absolutely no suspension of pharmacists’ professional standards or ethics in relation to this matter.” In terms of the GuildCare prompt, the Guild said that it is “simply systemising something that happens in pharmacies all over Australia every day”. “Doctors, pharmacists and other health professionals make recommendations for these type of products every day. “This is a legitimate, new approach to marketing of well established products – products which over the years have been frequently suggested and recommended by prescribing doctors,” the Guild added.

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