The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7373 p537
29 October 2005

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Compensation for GSK discount reduction in Scotland

Community pharmacists in Scotland are to be compensated for the reduction in available discounts brought about by GlaxoSmithKline earlier this year. The discount cut is one of the reasons behind a cut in clawback announced by the Scottish Executive last week (PJ, 22 October, p503).

The new target rate of proprietary discount recovery, which has been agreed by the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council, is 9.117 per cent. This is down from the previous 9.935 per cent and will take effect from September 2005 dispensings.

Frank Owens, chairman of the SPGC, explained that there are three reasons for the revised clawback scale. First, a small amount of discount had been over-recovered between April 2000 and June 2004, and this had to be returned to contractors. Second, the new scale reflected the reduction in proprietary drug prices that followed the introduction of the new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme arrangements in February. Third, a special allowance had been made to compensate contractors for the reduction in available discounts that resulted from the introduction of new trading arrangements by GSK and IVAX in April.

Full details of the revised clawback scale are given in an NHS circular published last week by the Scottish Executive (PDF 80K).