Pharmacists across the country adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the effects of the new Medicines and Related Substances Act as the industry faced uncertainty and anger on Monday.
”We don’t know what we are going to do. We don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing today [Monday],” said Abdul Carim, a pharmacist at the Colony Pharmacy in Johannesburg.
The Act, intended to regulate the price of medicines, came into force on Sunday, making discounting by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers illegal.
”At the moment we are just trying to explain to customers why they are no longer getting discounts,” Carim said.
Another Johannesburg pharmacist said: ”It’s a nightmare. We’re frantically trying to update our computer systems … these regulations were published so late. We’re having to apply an Act without knowing what’s going on.”
Some pharmacists were angry. One Eastern Cape pharmacist argued: ”Everyone has been asked to make sacrifices in the medical industry — the manufacturers, doctors, pharmacists — yet [the government] hasn’t made a single sacrifice.
”They’re not prepared to make a sacrifice and reduce VAT [value-added tax] on medicines.”
Another Eastern Cape pharmacist warned that the price of medicines could rise before consumers feel the effects of the Act.
”Despite the anticipated reduction, there could be a temporary increase in the price of medicines because all those in the chain of supply haven’t had time to collate their efforts to bring the prices down.
”Prices should start coming down in the next six to eight weeks when the single exist price will start applying,” he said.
”Overall the act must benefit consumers eventually but we must see this as a long-term project,” he warned.
Dhivia Naidoo, a pharmacist at Weleda Pharmacy in Johannesburg, said: ”At the moment it is very difficult because no one knows what’s going on … There is no professional body that seems to be taking responsibility. All the pharmacists said the Act would hurt business.”
Carim said: ”It is trying to make medicines more affordable and accessible, but it will lead to pharmacies closing down, which will make them less accessible.”
Pharmacists are not trying to exploit consumers, he said.
”We just want to make a decent living.”
Naidoo said: ”This is really bad news for wholly dispensing pharmacies … little pharmacies will suffer. Things are looking very bleak … there will be very little profit in pharmacies.”
She said large pharmacies employing a number of staff might have to look at retrenchments to keep their businesses afloat.
She agreed that ”it would be good if every pharmacy is getting medicine for the same price and no one has a price advantage over anyone else”.
However, Naidoo said: ”The implementation has to be very carefully thought through else it could put people out of business.”
Pharmacists expressed concern that the dispensing fee, which comes into effect on August 2, would make their businesses unprofitable.
According to the Act, dispensing fees for scheduled substances and medicines falling into the schedule one and two category, without a prescription, are set at 16% of the single exit price of a medicine less than R100.
If the substance is more than R100, the fee is R16.
For schedules three, four, five, six, seven and eight of the Act, and schedules one and two for which a prescription has been written, the fees must not exceed 26% if less than R100, and R26 if more than R100.
”The public has been brainwashed into thinking we have been making 300% mark-ups but the standard mark-up on medicines is 50%,” said Cape Town pharmacist Jerome Maggott.
”[The Act] is not going to be viable for pharmacists in its existing form. A dispensing fee of R26 is not viable,” Carim said.
”If someone pays with a credit card, we are already losing 5% on the sale.”
Maggott agreed: ”You won’t see the dispensing fee happening. We were supposed to implement it two years ago, but is just won’t be possible.
”But we first need to know what the government wants us to do before we know what we can do to protect ourselves.”
Carim said: ”We’re feeling very despondent.”
The Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA) said on Friday it is considering legal action to challenge aspects of the new legislation.
The PSSA, which represents about 5 000 pharmacists, said that about 1 000 community pharmacies could close down.
The PSSA plans to meet the Department of Health this week to continue discussions about their concerns. — Sapa