The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7321 p551
16 October 2004

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NPA plans to promote pharmacy ownership

The benefits of pharmacy ownership should be promoted more strongly by the National Pharmaceutical Association, the NPA board decided at its meeting in September.

“With the new contract and the move from a supply to a clinical role, we believe that there will be renewed interest in owning a pharmacy,” said John D’Arcy, chief executive of the NPA. A range of options to promote ownership will be developed and discussed at the next NPA board meeting.

Meanwhile, issues around control of entry and the “balanced package of measures” were highlighted during an earlier meeting between the NPA and health minister Rosie Winterton. Mr D’Arcy explained: “We told her that we were pleased to see movement from the first proposals but that we still have concerns about the ‘choice and competition’ test. By definition, every new application will increase choice and competition. If the key test is ‘necessary and desirable’ then ‘choice and competition’ must be subservient to that.”

Mr D’Arcy added that this could lead to unforeseen consequences that would frustrate primary care trusts’ ability to plan services. He predicted that the new measures would result in 250 pharmacies opening initially. “At a time when we have a new contract, we need solidity in the marketplace,” he said.

Among the other items on the agenda, the board expressed concerns over the proposed POM to P switch of Calpol suspension (PJ, 7 August, p178). “It is a paradox that only two years ago the Government re-regulated paracetamol by imposing a maximum pack size and now plans to de-regulate Calpol,” commented Mr D’Arcy.

However, it was supportive of proposed European legislation that includes the introduction of a year’s data protection for new results as part of POM-to-P switches, an obligation on companies to test patient information leaflets on user groups and an obligation on manufacturers to tell the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency about new information on a medicine’s risks and benefits (PJ, 7 August, p175).