CICPO Members Speak Out - Change is Coming

Independent Pharmacy owners raise concerns

Published on April 10, 2012  Gulf News

Corinna Yates  

"So disgusted."


Those are the words from Cindy Goudie, owner operator of The Medicine Cabinet in Port aux Basques.

As a small business owner, Ms. Goudie is concerned that the passing of bill 12 will eventually lead to financial difficulty for her and other independent pharmacy owners.

The bill, titled An Act to Amend The Pharmaceutical Services Act, will provide residents of this province with lower cost generic prescription drugs.

Health Minister Susan Sullivan held a news conference in St. John's on March 26. The new system for generic drugs will be phased in starting April 1.

The new regulations would mandate that all generic drugs be sold at 35 per cent of the cost of their corresponding brand drug.

Currently, generic drugs average about 60 percent of brand prices. The reduction would be phased in over the next year.

The government is saying that seniors are not going to be affected. However the Newfoundland government does not cover dispensing fees for seniors. So if the fees go up seniors will be paying more for their prescriptions, according to Ms. Goudie.

The provincial government is planning on saving more than $30 million on generic drug cost with this new pricing policy.

"There is no way that the government can move in, take the revenue out of your business and expect you to survive," said Ms. Goudie. "When there is revenue lost, we have to find a way to replace it."
The Medicine Cabinet has no storefront like some big pharmacies do. They just have a dispensary. They have nothing to fall back on in order to increase their revenue.

"What happens when the government comes in and starts saying we are going to make adjustments to generic drug pricing," she said. " A lot of the times this is how we keep our business open."
According to Ms. Goudie this will certainly impact her revenue.

"I think over all, you are going to see pharmacies having to increase their dispensing fees," she said. "This in turn will have an effect on seniors, on everyone."

The Council of Independent Pharmacy Owners (CICPO) had a meeting last week on how they are going to approach this.

"Susan Sullivan has shown us nothing," she Ms. Goudie. "Ms. Sullivan is saying there will be money re-invested back into pharmacies but gave no definite answer as to when this would happen."
Members of CICPO are hoping that government will talk to them.

According to Robert Doyle, spokesman for CICPO, independent pharmacies rely on rebate payments from generic drug manufactures in exchange for stocking their shelves.

"The members of CICPO worry that those payments will evaporate as the manufactures are squeezed," he said.

Both the Liberals and the NDP said they have concerns about the independent pharmacies, and they worry about the effect the new system could have on senior citizens.

Yvonne Jones, Liberal house leader, said she will be proposing amendments to the bill.

According to Ms. Jones, many seniors don't pay for drugs because they are covered by the provincial drug plan, but they do have to pay pharmacists' dispensing fees.
"If the government decides to increase regulated dispensing fees to help out independent pharmacist, it could lead to low-income seniors paying more for drugs," she said
.
According to Susan Sullivan seniors will not have to pay more for their drugs.

Craig Walters manages his parents' pharmacies in both Burgeo and the Codroy Valley. He has the same concerns as other independent pharmacy owners.

"I could be looking at 40 per cent loss in revenue from our professional fees," he said. "That money is used to run our business, pay our staff and keep inventory in stock."
According to Mr. Walters, 40 per cent of his sales come from prescriptions.

"The problem is they are changing generic pricing and telling us they are going to take care of the small independent pharmacies, yet they are not telling us how or what they are going to do," he said.
According to Mr. Walters, people in rural communities depend on their pharmacies for not only prescriptions but other things as well.

"In Burgeo we are the only pharmacy and if we were to close down people would have to travel two and a half hours to the nearest pharmacy," he said. "We give out counselling to our customers on different topics such as over the counter prescriptions or how to read their blood sugar meters."
They also provide other free services like faxing doctor's forms.

"Now customers may have to start paying for those services because we may not be able to continue to do that for free," he said.