What happened to the Ontario Community Pharmacies Coalition?

The Ontario Community Pharmacies coalition - the love in that was supposed to bridge the gap between the mighty chains and independents appears to have gone up in smoke.
 
If you go to their once active website HERE you will notice the page can no longer be found. The joint material is no longer available.

Here's the "Reader's Digest" so to speak - version of events.

In 2006 the Government of Ontario were rattling the cages of pharmacies by introducing changes to the law regarding the pricing of generics - similar to what the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has regulated here.

Knowing the devastation that would be caused to independent pharmacy - particularly in rural areas and inner-city pharmacy - independent pharmacies in that province formed the Independent Pharmacy of Ontario to get the message out to the public.

The IPO headed by Ben Shenouda were beginning to make headway as their Public Relations campaign was meeting with good public support. The government was under pressure to do things differently as the people of Ontario generally trusted and agreed with their local independent pharmacies and wanted to have that model protected.

In a clever move by both the Government of Ontario officials and the Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores - they "con"vinced the independents to come sit at the table together. The IPO dropped its PR campaign and joined with the CACDS the Ontario Pharmacists' Association to form the Ontario Community Pharmacies Coalition to speak with a "united" voice.

A new PR campaign was launched where essentially big chains and retailers were asking the public to support their significant profits and model and in the process - the real plight of the independent stores was lost. that PR campaign was a disaster and the Ontario government came in guns ablazing and hacked the revenues of the pharmacies.

That was then - this is now.

The independents are hurting if not closing, they are cutting back hours, laying off staff, and eliminating or putting a price-tag on services which were once free to the public is a desparate attempt to survive.

Meanwhile as demonstrated in our last post - the big players like Shopper's Drug Mart are out for the slaughter - the cheaper the better.

Please review the Shopper's Drug Mart positioning below:

also plans to seize the opportunity to buy out independent pharmacies that are even more vulnerable

The positive is, we firmly believe there will be a strong opportunity delivered by drug reform that will allow us in a greater way to be a consolidator of the marketplace

Local druggists lamented that some would inevitably have to close down because prescription sales make up a bigger percentage of their sales mix and they wouldn't be able to absorb the hit to their profits. 

And that vulnerability is where Shoppers sees opportunity in the reforms. 

Pilla told analysts Shoppers plans to be "extremely active in the market" as it watches more independents forced into selling as the drug reforms work their way through their balance sheets.

That does not sound like a nice group of people to be planning the future for independent owners and the people they serve right?

Well considering that just months ago - they were holding hands - to present a unified front - we went back to visit the Coalition to see how they were making out.

The web page is no longer there. The kinship appears to have been doused with very cold water - aka reality.

Rural communities that lose a pharmacy may well see a robot soon if not already, the once tremendous model of independent pharmacy is in the fight of its life, and the people of Ontario - if Shoppers and others have their way will one day soon be dealing with a monopoly of chain giants.

We probably don't need to tell you where that will go - right out of the customers pockets as the competition will have been drained away.

Of course Shoppers and the chains will not stop there - any little independent left will be forced to buy their drugs from chain competitors as they now have the right to produce and supply their own private line of generic drugs. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has already allowed that here and if they keep it up - your pharmacy may no longer be able to serve you in the manner which is best for you.

So much for sitting at the table with those who ultimately want to eliminate you. Should we expect they will make a deal that's good for independent pharmacies? It has not happened anywhere else. That is why CICPO is fighting hard - to ensure that we have equitable and superior pharmacy services available to all people in our province - regardless of where they live, their mobility, their age, or their insurance status. We are working equally as hard to find solutions for government that would save the monies they would like to save.

They just won't talk - and there's a reason for that - and that reason is not good for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Tell us what does the Pharmacists' Association of Newfoundland and Labrador have to say about the comments made this week by the CEO of Shopper's Drug Mart? The silence is deafening.