Special offers, P medicines and reduced fees
Buy one get one free is a road to nowhere, David Mitchell,
commercial director of Johnson & Johnson MSD, said during a Young
Pharmacists Group question time session on 7 October. From a safety point
of view, there is no difference, for example, between buying one pack
of 12 tablets and getting one free and buying a pack of 24 tablets in
the first place.
However, he is in favour of link offers. “I think
that it is good for the customer and good for business if you link sales
by saying buy one get the other half price.” Since the lifting of resale
price maintenance for over-the-counter medicines, consumers have been
buying far more general sale list medicines.
Commenting on whether medicines are an item of commerce,
he said that medicines with GSL or pharmacy medicine status that are appropriately
labelled and packaged are seen by the public as “just another ordinary
item of commerce”. However, Bill Scott, chief pharmaceutical officer for
Scotland, disagreed saying that if pharmacists do not exercise the fact
that pharmacy medicines are only available through them then they should
not have this privilege.
Sue Sharpe, chief executive, Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee, added that in her view it is not the price pharmacists
charge but the product that they provide.
Questioned about a reduced retention fee for newly
registered pharmacists, Mrs Sharpe said that she would support a staged
fee structure. “There is a real case for starting to look at affordability
and staged structure of fee payments.” She also said that the profession
has to make sure that it is getting good value from the fees it pays.
Mr Mitchell agreed and welcomed any financial help given to students entering
into their professional career. Reducing the fee for the first five years
after registering was suggested.
In the United States, newly registered pharmacists
are charged a scaled reduced fee for three years, according to Linda Strand,
University of Minnesota.
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