Quantum Forest logs are written by Luis A. Apiolaza in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Pharmacies and competition
Published Wednesday September 15, 2004 · Permalink

In June I made some comments on how chemists (pharmacies) were stifling competition. That was a comment solely based on my experience dealing with them. Ten days ago Choice Magazine, owned by the Australian Consumers’ Association, published a report on the quality of advice and pricing provided by pharmacies.

Access to the report requires paid subscription (which I have), but the main findings were made public. The study included 87 seven pharmacies in Sydney, the Wollongong area and Adelaide, and found that:

The report also claimed that:

...there’s some evidence that restricting pharmacy ownership may be limiting competition and make prices for some medicines higher than they would otherwise be, and the results of our spot-check seem to support this.

Sadly, it seems that my experience with pharmacies was not an exception at all.

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