Outrage over Pfizer's distribution announcement
Scotland and Wales
The Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council has voiced concerns
that the move leaves no fall back position if supply difficulties
occur,
which, it says, is especially worrying for pharmacies in remote
and rural areas, many of which will find it difficult to justify
another wholesaler account.
A UniChem spokeswoman said that she was as yet unable to give
exact details of regional arrangements. “UniChem has extremely robust
plans in place to ensure that we can maintain current service patterns
for all pharmacists and dispensing doctors across the UK,” she
said.
Community Pharmacy Wales chief executive officer, Peter Hayden
Jones, told The Journal: “We do have concerns when any critical medicine
is limited to a single supply source.” He said that CPW is
working closely with the PSNC on addressing the issue, as well
as talking to the Welsh Assembly Government. |
Guild response
Allan Karr, chairman of the Guild of Healthcare
Pharmacists procurement and distribution interest group, and
pharmacy purchasing and
business manager, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust,
commented: “I
think that the Pfizer decision to use UniChem as its sole distributor
is a landmark for the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. Clearly
this is an attempt by a manufacturer to control its products
more closely.”
Mr Karr explained that Pfizer stands to gain the capacity and frequency
benefits of a wholesaler, but with control of their stock levels
and distribution. Pfizer, rather than the wholesalers, is now controlling
the supply chain, he said.
“There are many strategic issues that need to be considered as a consequence.
Only time will tell how this change will impact on the medicine
supply chain in the long term,” he added. |
Pfizer last week announced that it will sell its products in the UK with UniChem acting as sole distributor in a bid to secure the supply chain against counterfeit medicines. The move has outraged community pharmacy bodies and many doubt Pfizer's motivations.
Pfizer maintains that the current supply chain is vulnerable and that
the new plans will give customers confidence that the medicines are genuine
Pfizer products.
David Watson, head of trade for Pfizer, told The Journal that the new
arrangement will come into effect in March next year. He described it
as “a big change which hasn’t been taken lightly. We are
very concerned about counterfeiting; for some reason Pfizer products
seem to be targeted, which is damaging to our reputation.”
However, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has voiced
its doubts. It said in a statement: “Although Pfizer has sought
to suggest the principal driver is the discovery of counterfeit Lipitor,
PSNC believes it is part of a concerted move by the company to kill parallel
trade and drug diversion.”
Mark Stephenson, marketing director at UniChem, confirmed this week that
the arrangements will not prevent any wholesaler — including UniChem — from
importing Pfizer products through parallel trade. “It is a free
market,” he said.
The National Pharmacy Association said: “The recent decision by
Pfizer to use one wholesaler only to act as a distributor for its products
is another example of significant changes in trading terms which could
cause huge upheaval and uncertainty for community pharmacists (not to
mention the possible adverse effect this move could have on timely patient
access to Pfizer products)”.
Steve Dunn, group managing director of AAH Pharmaceuticals, launched
a strong response: “This is a bad deal for pharmacy,” he
said. “We support the PSNC and the NPA in their opposition to this
deal.” He told The Journal that the arrangement would eradicate
choice and competition, be a disruption to the usual supply chain and
create multiple invoices and deliveries for pharmacists.
Mr Watson said that he was surprised by the AAH response, since Pfizer
was in detailed planning with AAH (as well as UniChem and Phoenix) for
the better part of last year, but did not come to an agreement with them.
Martin Sawer, executive director, British Association of Pharmaceutical
Wholesalers, said that Pfizer is wrong to link counterfeit medicines
to pharmaceutical wholesaler distribution. He said: “It is a slur
on wholesalers who work closely with suppliers especially when new products
need to get to market fast or when product recalls are necessary because
of manufacturer error.”
Naturally, independent pharmacy groups are worried (see Meetings p425).
Cambrian Alliance made a statement this week, saying that its members
are concerned that having UniChem as the sole supplier of Pfizer products
will give Alliance Boots pharmacies an unfair advantage in the allocation
of short supply products, a monopoly that would enable them to dictate
levels of discount and service.
Pfizer confirmed that it has independently audited Unichem’s capacity
to deliver to every pharmacy in the UK twice a day and that there would
be no minimum order quantities.
Community pharmacists are anxious that Pfizer’s plans will affect
their bottom line (see Letters p423).
Pfizer will be announcing a new discount scheme in around three weeks’ time,
Mr Watson said. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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