Tag: pharmacy

Loyalty systems on prescription drugs in pharmacies are cancelled. However, amendment to the law on pharmaceuticals, signed by President of the Slovak Republic, give pharmacists opportunity to give up the part of their margin in the form of discounts up to 50% of the surcharge for drugs. According to amended, natural or legal person will receive permission for the provision of pharmaceutical care in only one public pharmacy and only for one division of public pharmacy. In practice, it means the elimination of network of pharmacies. The amendment enters into force on January 2, 2013.

Price of pharmaceuticals in Slovakia will be not higher than the average of three lowest prices in the European Union. This principle is also related to medical devices and dietary supplements. This stems from an amendment to the law on pharmaceuticals. Currently, the maximum price cannot exceed the second lowest price in the European Union.

Investment group Penta once again strengthen its position in the Czech Republic. It bought another network of pharmacies - SimonPharma, with sales of € 19.9 million. The largest network of pharmacies Dr. Max with 279 branches will get another six and also the internet pharmacy DocSimon. Network of pharmacies Dr. Max in the Czech Republic manage Penta by the company Česká lekárna. In November, Antimonopoly Office has approved the acquisition of pharmacy network Lloyds and GehePharma Praha by Penta. Česká lekárna in 2010 reached sales of € 0.32 billion and control one-tenth of all pharmacies in the Czech Republic.

Loyalty systems on prescription drugs in pharmacies will be cancelled from next year. However, amendment to the Act on pharmaceuticals, signed by President of the Slovak Republic, give pharmacists the opportunity to give up the part of their margin in the form of discounts up to 50% of the surcharge for drugs. According to amended, natural or legal person will receive permission for the provision of pharmaceutical care in only one public pharmacy and only for one division of public pharmacy. In practice, it means the elimination of network of pharmacies. The amendment will enter into force on January 2, 2013.

From January the payments in pharmacies may change. Pharmacies will have to withdraw the loyalty cards and programs. Instead of this, they will be able to give a discount on its margin, which ranges from twelve to fifteen per cent according to the price of the product. Surcharge for individual drug will not be able to reduce by more than half. This is proposed by Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenska in drug reform, which parliament should approve in the coming days. Analysts and Ministry of Finance, however, worries that the new measure will have a negative impact on public finances. Health insurance companies do not like the proposal either.

Representatives of Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists brought members of Parliament the book Gorila. This way they want to draw their attention to the fact, that proposal to the act on surcharges for pharmaceuticals is according to the Chamber made expressly in behalf of financial group Penta and its network of pharmacies Dr. Max. Beside the book the representatives of the Chamber passed also the open letter, in which they ask members of Parliament to refuse the proposal to the amendment to the act on extend and conditions of payments for pharmaceuticals. 

Proposal of political party Smer for allowing of discounts in pharmacies up to half of surcharge for pharmaceutical is according to the Vice President of political party SDKÚ, Viliam Novotný, a pig in a poke. According to him this will aggrieve patients and health insurance companies. It will be, according to him, besides this, a non-transparent system, as the pharmacy will not have to publish the amount of offered discount. Patient will be according to him confused in this new system of discounts, as currently patient knows that he/she runs on the loyalty system and knows how to claim the discount. 

Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská wants to allow pharmacies to provide patients with discounts from surcharges for pharmaceuticals at the expense of their margin. It will depend on pharmacy, whether it will use this possibility and what amount of discount it will offer. Discount, however, cannot exceed the half of surcharge. Zvolenská wants this change to enter into force from January. The change should be a part of the reform of pharmaceutical acts, which will prohibit the loyalty discounts in pharmacies. Slovak Pharmaceutical Chamber is surprised by this proposal. Its Vice President Ondrej Sukeľ suspects Penta of a pressure. 

The largest network of pharmacies, Dr. Max, has collected 60 000 signatures for remaining of loyalty discounts in pharmacies. By the action, which was launched two months ago, this network wants to reverse the effort of the Government to prohibit the loyalty systems. Representatives of the network will submit the petitions to the Parliament in the coming days. Members of Parliament should by the end of November definitively approve the amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals, which contains also the ban of discounts in pharmacies. 

Cancelling of networks of pharmacies through the amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals, which is currently in Parliament, the company Mirakl, owner of Dr. Max pharmacies, considers as a form of expropriation. Company considers this proposal as an indirect form of expropriation, as it makes the entrepreneur, which provides several pharmacies, to give up of all of them except one. Amendment to the act enables the providing of only one public pharmacy plus one branch of public pharmacy. 

Ban of the loyalty system for pharmaceuticals on prescription, as well as cancelling of the networks of public pharmacies, is closer to the approval. Members of Parliament have shifted the governmental proposal of the amendment to the act on pharmaceuticals, which includes the mentioned measures, to the second reading. Submitter, Ministry of Health, proposes to delete the clause about the loyalty system, as these measures with marketing character, according to it, weakens the expert and medical character of this activity.