Trade Matters
Over the past few decades the community pharmacists had encountered numerous trade related problems, which are the norms in any free economic system. Most of these problems were tolerated and left unresolved because the community pharmacists, individually speaking, do not have the time and resources to deal with them. The scenario is overdue for a change as MCPA is now established to promote and protect the professionalism and rightful interests of the practitioners.
It is important to state right here that MCPA is not formed to “bully others” but rather to oversee that pharmacists are not being bullied by others, in trade matters.
Trade issues may arise from discriminating prices, unfair bonus schemes, refusal to sell to some pharmacies, restricting certain packing sizes from pharmacy, only sell a large dispensing pack of a common drug to clinic, and granting unfavourable or unacceptably low credit limit to some pharmacies.
Just for the record, a certain foreign-based firm gave much better bonuses to the doctors than the pharmacists all these years. The person who designed such a scheme was possibly a pharmacist, by training but not by heart. A second firm relied on the community pharmacies to recommend his OTC products. When the sale had reached a few million ringgit, he cut the pharmacists away from certain smaller pack sizes. A third multi-national firm decided to ban the sale of a large dispensing pack of the common painkiller from all the community pharmacies.
Upon enquiries, these firms defended their positions under “so called marketing decisions”. Whatsoever marketing decisions any firm make must not deprive the community pharmacies the access from any scheduled and unscheduled Poisons or medical devices that are sold in this country. MCPA would like to think that no single firm should have absolute power to deny the pharmacy practitioners access to the drugs.
Their discriminating trading policies had led the patients and customers to think that the prices of drugs are higher in the community pharmacies, and community pharmacies are not even permitted to supply certain common drugs (Non-Scheduled Poison) that are easily available from the clinics.
The unacceptable trade policies from these firms should be “modified” on the trading-table, through direct contact by MCPA’s Trade Matters Committee, as and when the issues occurs. MCPA strongly believes that the desire of the majority in the profession cannot be brushed aside by anybody.