Pharmacists will be given three month deadline to offer discounts on non-prescription drugs

The troika of Greece’s international lenders will monitor prices of non-prescription drugs for the next three months so that it can be decided whether those products will be sold exclusively at drug stores or at other retailers as well.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, responding to a current question by Independent Greeks deputy Vassilis Kapernaros, on Thursday said that the Health

ministry had “tough negotiations with the troika”, while it claimed that selling non-prescription drugs outside pharmacies is not a recommended policy for Greece, as the country has the highest rate of pharmacies per resident in the world.

The government’s proposal was to give a three-month period so that pharmacists can prove that competition rules are not violated and that no monopoly practices are used to determine non-prescription drugs prices.

“If we are proved right and a free market actually operates within pharmacists during those three months, then the debate on non-prescription drugs and super markets will be finally ended,” Georgiadis said. He added that “if some sort of cartel is set up and we find than no discounts have been made in any pharmacy during these three months, but all prices have been set at their highest level, then a big debate will start, as having a cartel is illegal and morally reprehensible.”

“Oligopolies, monopolies and businesses set up cartels, not small shops around the corner,” Kapernaros mentioned. He said if the sale of non-prescription drugs is allowed outside pharmacies, then drug stores would close down. He concluded that the state arrears to pharmacists amount to 280 million euros.

source: ΑΜΝΑ