The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7245 p534
19 April 2003

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Vet medicines monopoly to be broken

Veterinary surgeons will have to comply with new requirements in order to break the complex monopoly over the supply of prescription medicines for animals (PJ, 21 September 2002, p383) and pharmacists stand to gain dispensing business as a result.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, has accepted recommendations from the Competition Commission that vets should be obliged to display notices saying that clients can have prescriptions written so that they can buy their medicines from pharmacies if they want to do so. The notices will have to list the prices of the 10 most commonly prescribed medicines at that practice and say that prices for other medicines are available on request. Vets will not be allowed to charge extra for issuing prescriptions for three years after the plan is implemented.

They will also have to tell people that they can have written prescriptions and how much they will charge for any medicines, provide itemised bills which distinguish professional services from the cost of medicines and explain their policies on repeat supplies.

Monopolies exercised by manufacturers and wholesalers of animal medicines are also to be broken. Manufacturers will have to tell pharmacies the terms on which they supply veterinary medicines and offer pharmacies the same terms that they offer to veterinary surgeons. Wholesalers are to be required to deal with pharmacies on the same terms as vets and vets are to be allowed to compete among themselves for the supply of medicines for animals not under their care.

On the regulatory front, the Competition Commission has said that animal medicines should automatically be given the least restrictive classification that is justified by available scientific data whenever their marketing authorisations come up for review. It wants a new classification of medicines that agricultural merchants and saddlers should be allowed to dispense and for POM flea products to be available from pharmacies. The commission also says that it should be made easier to import animal medicines from Europe.

Andrew Cairns, chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Veterinary Pharmacists' Group, said that the planned changes provide a major opportunity for pharmacy and reflect the findings of a report by Professor Sir John March on opening up veterinary dispensing (PJ, 21/28 December 2002, p878).

Mr Cairns said that the Society is to explore with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate the possibility of a new classification of animal medicines that can be supplied by pharmacists but which are not suitable for supply by saddlers or agricultural merchants. The Society already has in mind a number of large-animal vaccines that could fall into this category.

Mr Cairns added that if high street pharmacies could access the market for ectoparasiticides for companion animals then that would encourage a large number of pet owners who did not regularly de-flea or worm their cats and dogs to do so.

National Pharmaceutical Association chief executive John D'Arcy said that fewer than 100 pharmacies had significant veterinary business. He expected that up to 10 per cent of all pharmacies would enter the veterinary market given the opportunities offered by the Competition Commission.

Comment, p532