Pharmacies and competition

Will we ever see a Single Market in this sector and thus more competition in Europe? Basically, I do not think that this would happen soon as the Pharmacies’ lobby is very strong both in the EU and in most EU countries. Just as the Single Market has not been achieved in other areas, it is still a very long way off in this sector. On the other hand, are consumers to simply accept this as a fact and accept the status quo as their destiny?

Again, I do not think so. The reason is that there are other forces at work which cannot be stopped. Globalisation of trade and the permeability of this phenomenon down to the single individual consumer through online shopping are forces which no single national lobby, even one as strong as the Pharmacies' (inews blog ), would be able to stand against for a long time.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time, even in Malta. I still remember when the GRTU tried to stop consumers from buying books at a cheap price from visiting vessels. Its lobby against change also extended to online shopping but it knows that this position will not stand the test of time and they will have to change their position just as they did on Sunday shopping. Presently, the number of online shopping of medicines is small but it is increasing as it deals, even in an indirect way, to the problems consumers are facing in this sector (Facebook).

Taking the average consumer, I believe there is still quite a lot of hesitation to buy medicines and other health care products online. The reason for this reluctance is that this area concerns their health. Consumers are still cautious though people feel the need for a wider choice and lower prices of medicines.

The prices of medicines for a time was a hot issue especially since Maltese were realizing that the prices that they had to pay in Malta were high. A regulatory process was introduced to control prices. The process introduced, surveys medicines’ prices and where it is found that these are disproportionately high, through this mechanism, prices are reduced. This mechanism started during the last legislature and is still operational. It is operated by the MCCAA. Though this mechanism has been successful in reducing medicines’ prices, it is bureaucratic by its very nature and only aims at pressuring prices towards the average European price.

Online shopping is the answer and several European markets are opening up. Just as Uber has caused an earthquake in the taxi sector of most European markets, two firms have shaken the two most conservative countries in this area – Germany and France. Doc Morris had shaken the German market some years ago while 1001Pharmacies has started shaking the French pharmacies sector. Their business model is similar to Amazon.com and the transfer of this business model to the pharmacies’ sector looks very promising both to consumers and the business sector.

As I already indicated the most important factor holding back development in this sector has been consumers’ reluctance into diving into this sector. The reason is that the shadow of online pharmacies’ unsavoury beginnings still hangs over the business due to the chance of consumers receiving counterfeits which at one extreme can be ineffective while on the other, could be fatal.

However, there is hope on the way. Many countries are rising to this challenge and are providing websites where consumers can check the reliability of the supplier. Most are making it mandatory that websites providing online shopping for pharmaceuticals should also have their registration showing so as consumers can be sure that those supplying the medicines are reliable.

On the European level, things are also moving in this direction. As from this July, online pharmacies in the EU should have a special logo. Unfortunately though mandatory it is still missing from most online pharmacies websites. The logo will have the national banner and once clicked on it will direct you to the national website where one can check whether the site is registered and thus reaches mandatory standards. For Maltese online pharmacies there are two such logos – one in Maltese and the other in English since the two languages are both Malta’s official languages.

Thus the way is open to offer such a service by local pharmacies. Till present there are no local pharmacies. Will the local business sector rise to the occasion or shall Maltese consumers continue to rely on overseas online pharmacies as we do rely in most other sectors?