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Letters to the Editor
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Pfizer
Difficulties obtaining stock
From Mr K. J. Black, MRPharmS
Following your article “Pfizer
purchasing quotas criticised by CPS” (PJ, 9 June, p661), I thought I should write about Rowlands’s
experiences of the quotas imposed by Pfizer at pharmacy level.
In the first month of operating the new system, we received 227 letters
in our branches stating they had ordered “excessive quantities” of
a particular product and could not order any more until the next month.
When challenged on this, Pfizer told me these pharmacies would receive
a further letter and then quotas would be imposed.
The reality is that stock demands vary. I assume Pfizer must be aware
of any local prescribing changes before they occur, or any other changes
at local levels to decide on quantities of stock that individual pharmacies
may order. Different pharmacies will have different requirements depending
on the prescription volumes they handle or the prescribing patterns of
local GPs. And, given that prescribers are generally free (or should
be) to prescribe any product, exact patterns are impossible to predict.
It now appears it is down to the manufacturer, rather than the choice
of patients and practitioners, to determine who gets what and by what
route.
In the past, a network of wholesalers has also allowed us to deal with
quotas and work hard to make stock available throughout the network and,
therefore, ensure continuity of supply to patients.
Our problems are compounded by the change in cut-off times. Over 75 per
cent of Rowlands branches have a cut-off time of approximately 10am and
the delivery time is in all instances after 4.30pm (on many occasions
after 5.30pm). The evening cut off is 6pm with delivery between 11am
and noon. The result is that, in reality, Rowlands branches have now
had their service to patients reduced from two daily deliveries to one.
Since delivery times are all significantly worse than before the change,
in order to offer the same service to customers our branches need to
increase their stock levels.
I believe this is seriously undermining our ability to put the patient
first and keep administration to a minimum. In addition to responding
to the Office of Fair Trading inquiry, I urge all contractors to make
any concerns known to the Department of Health as a matter of urgency
to ensure that medicines supply continues in a way that is best for patients
rather than large, multinational drug companies.
Kenny Black
Managing Director
Rowlands Pharmacy
| |
DAVID GRIFFITHS, operations director, UniChem, responds:
UniChem
is pleased to report continued excellent service levels on delivery
of Pfizer prescription medicines. In the fourth month of these
arrangements UniChem can confirm that service levels remain in
excess of 99 per cent and continue to improve, for the complete
network of over 15,500 pharmacists and dispensing doctors.
UniChem has been working closely with customers at a local level
to address the small number of local service issues that have
arisen during the launch of this
major distribution model. In April we contacted over 7,000 Pfizer-only customers
(excluding UniChem first-line and second-line customers) and found that over
95 per cent of pharmacists were satisfied, or more than satisfied, with the
service we are providing on behalf of Pfizer.
UniChem is aware of the concerns cited by Mr Black and has been working with
Rowlands to rectify any issues in a timely and efficient manner. UniChem does
not see any value in carrying out discussions regarding individual customer
issues in the public arena and will continue its dialogue directly with Rowlands.
We are confident that the new model is operating well and will continue to
monitor service arrangements in order to make additional improvements wherever
possible. |
Pfizer responds to its critics
From Mr D. Watson
We have been invited by The Pharmaceutical Journal to respond to specific
customer criticisms relating to the supply of Pfizer prescription medicines.
We believe the most appropriate response is to provide Journal readers
with unbiased factual information so they are able to draw their own
conclusions.
It is critical for Pfizer that every UK pharmacy is able to buy supplies
of our medicines to meet their patients’ needs. That is why we
have a team dedicated to ensuring we bring sufficient product into the
UK so we can always meet demand.
We now have full visibility of the supply chain from factory to pharmacy
which enables us to make sure we distribute our medicines fairly and
evenly as we do not have the needs of a wholly owned pharmacy chain to
consider.
As part of this process, we operate a pharmacy supply policy and on very
limited occasions have had to directly manage the quantity of products
being sold to pharmacies where order patterns have been extremely high
and irregular.
In response to the story
regarding Allen Tweedie (PJ, 16 June, p695),
I note Dr Tweedie claims that the issue of pharmacists selling products
to other pharmacies or overseas “does not apply to us at all”.
The article failed to mention that Healthcare Plus Pharmacy, with 21
pharmacies, is part of HF Healthcare Ltd, a generics and parallel trade
business offering “next day delivery”, according to its website.
Pfizer did directly intervene on one occasion and was forced to set an
allocation on a specific product to one Healthcare
Plus Pharmacy but this was only done when orders reached 12 times the
level anticipated and we believed it would impact general availability.
Separately, in response to the claims of Rowlands Pharmacy (wholly owned
by Phoenix wholesaler) set out above, we can confirm that at all times
we have ensured that Rowlands has sufficient stock.
Let us be clear: the consequences of not managing supply would be that
traders could buy large quantities of product to sell on, which would
lead to market shortages and jeopardise supply for UK patients. Without
adequate controls in place it might only take a few traders to buy up
large quantities of essential medicines, which would lead to a significant
proportion of our pharmacy customer base being short of stock.
David Watson
Director of Trade
Pfizer |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal