The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 266 No 7148 p675-678
May 19, 2001

  Technician registration
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  Resale price maintenance
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Resale price maintenance

Incompatible philosophies

From Mr P. Melnick

Professor Joy Wingfield (PJ, May 5, p621) states that pharmacists cling to a deeply held conviction that medicines are not ordinary items of commerce. Further, their continued advertisement has led consumers to believe that these are ordinary purchases needing no further advice or input from the pharmacist. She also claims that such sentiments are at the root of the challenge to resale price maintenance.

I have to disagree. They are but a minor factor in a much larger equation.

I put it to her that once pharmacists — most noticeably including the multiple to which she acts as a consultant — chose to put medicines on self-service display, the argument that such medicines were somehow special was nullified and totally lost. It matters not one iota that the law allows it. You simply cannot argue that these medicines are special on the one hand and yet worthy of a push to increase their impulse purchase on the other. The two philosophies are incompatible.

Nor do I believe that the company in question took an expedient short-term position. On the contrary, it was a deliberate, far-sighted and cynical decision taken to weaken a solid plank on which the case for resale price maintenance rests. That company, of all pharmacy owners, would have the most to gain from its abolition and it would be very much in line with their stated policy to increase shareholder value.

Perry Melnick
Ilford, Essex

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